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THE 



WORKS OF VI 




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LI1 ORALLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE, 



WITH NOT£S, 



BY DAVIDSON, 

A i 



A NEW EDITION, REVlSF.D. WITH ADDITIONAL MOTS?.' 



TEEODOUE, ALOIS BUCKLEY. 

i 

OF CHRIST HHURCU. 



LONDON: 
BELL & DALDY, TOEK STEEET, COVENT GARDEN. 

1873. 



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(A 






<4l 



By Transfer 

MAR 15 19i; 



LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
AND CHARING CROSS. 



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PREFACE, 



The object of the publisher in issuing the present 
volume was not so much to produce a new book, as to 
render an old and, in many respects, a good one, more 
suited to the present state of scholarship, and the exi- 
gencies of the student. 

With this view the translation has been carefully 
compared with Wagner's text, and with the principal 
commentaries ; many thousand alterations, involving 
either closer accuracy in translation or a stricter adher- 
ence to the construction, have been introduced; and, 
while the brief historical and mythological notes of the 
original work have been retained for the use of the tyro, 
attention has also been paid in the editor's further 
illustrations to the requirements of the more advanced 
scholar. 

The brief Memoir of Virgil contains every fact neces- 
sary to be known by the general student and nothing 



VI PREFACE. 



more. In criticising a poet, whose taste, rather than his 
invention, is to be commended, it is easy to offend many, 
and please none ; to draw comparisons, but fail of con- 
viction. 



THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, 

CHRIST CHURCH. 




MEMOIR. 



Publius Vihgilius Maro was born on the 15th oi 
V Octobej^B. .a-70, at Andes,, a little village near Mantua. 
His mother's name was Maia^ and his father was proba- 
bly a small landowner. Great attention must have 
been bestowed upon the education of our poet, as he 
appears to have been thoroughly imbued with the spirit 
of ancient philosophy by his master, Syron. Delicacy 
of health, and the probable want of influence arising 
from his not being a Roman citizen by birth, no doubt 
prevented his attention to the more rising professions of 
war and oratory, and contributed to strengthen his 
natural inclination for a retirement sacred to poetry 
and agriculture. 

The fatal issue of the battle of Philippi, in b. c. 42, 
placed Maxk Antony and Octavianus at the head of 
affairs, and the latter quickly began, on his return, to 
reward his soldiers with allotments of land. To make 
way for these new occupants, the old possessors had to 
give up their own estates, and amongst these sufferers 



vm MEMOIR 

was Virgil. The particulars of trie case are insufficiently 
known to us, but Virgil probably owed trie subsequent 
restitution of his estate (between b. c. 42 and 40) to the 
advice and intercession of Asinius Pollio. The first 
Eclogue is commonly regarded as a thank-offering of 
the poet to Augustus. 

About the same time Virgil became acquainted with 
the proverbial patron of men of genius, Maecenas, at 
whose mansion his friendship with Horace probably 
commenced. The writings of the latter show that the 
most cordial intimacy must have subsisted between these 
distinguished poets and their liberal entertainer. 

Critics seem to agree in placing the completion of the 
Georgics in b. c. 31, while his Eclogues were no doubt 
of an earlier date. As Theocritus formed the model of 
these brief pastorals, so the Greek agricultural and 
astronomical poems of Hesiod, Aratus, Nicander, and 
others, whose works are only known to us in fragments, 
furnished the materials, and often the language, of the 
Georgics of Virgil. 

The jEneid must have occupied our poet's thoughts 
for a long time, although we have no certain data of its 
commencement and progress. 1 At whatever time, how- 
ever, it was begun, the poet appears to have regarded 
it as an unfinished production at the time of his death, 

1 A summary of some of the principal suppositions on this head "will 
be found in Mr. George Long's article " Virgilius," in Smith's Biographic 
cal Dictionary. x 



MEMOIR. 1* 

ail opinion in which modern critics have unanimously 
coincided. 

On the return of Augustus from Samos in the year 
b. c. 20, he met Virgil at Athens. An intended tour 
through Greece was prevented by his failing health, 
and Virgil died soon after his arrival at Brundusium, 
on the 2nd of September, b. c. 19. His remains were 
carried to Naples, which had been his favourite place 
of residence, and, if we may believe Donatus, the 
following inscription, from the poet's own hand, was 
placed on the tomb. 

" Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc 
Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces." 

Although Virgil had lived with the greatest liberality, 
and had been studiously mindful of the fulfilment of 
filial duty, he left considerable property, accumulated 
by the- liberality of his friends. His manners were 
modest and retiring ; his disposition distinguished by 
amiable urbanity and unassuming gentleness. Nor was 
his fortune inferior to his merits. He lived in the best 
age of Rome, among the best spirits of that age, and 
enjoyed the delights of fame without the persecutions 
of envy and the sacrifice of character. If not possessed 
of the mighty inventive genius of a Homer or JEschy- 
lus, he was beyond all others in the true perception of 
elegance, in the unaffected love of his subject, and in 
the exquisite finish and sublimity of his episodes. 



^-^rS* 



VIRGIL'S BUCOLICS. 



ECLOGUE I. 

Virgil, in this Eclogue, celebrates the praises of Augustus, for reftoiiag to 
him his lands, of which he had been dispossessed, having been bestowed 
upon the veteran soldiers who had fought in the cause of Augustus, at .the 
battle of Philippi, b. c. 42. Tityrus personates Virgil, or probably his 
father, and Melibceus, his less fortunate neighbours, the Mantuans. 

Melibceus, Tityrus. 

M. You, Tityrus, reclined under the covert of a full-spread 
beech, practise a woodland lay on a slendir oaten pipe : We 
leave the bounds of our country, and our pleasant fields ; we 
fly our country ; you, Tityrus, stretched at ease in the shade, 
teach the woods to re-echo beauteous Amaryllis. 1 

T. O Meliboeus, a god hath vouchsafed us this tranquillity : 
for to me he shall always be a god ; a tender lamb from our 
folds shall often stain his altar [with its blood]. He per- 
mitted my heifers to range at large, as you see, and myself to 
play what I wished on my rural reed. 

M. I envy you not indeed ; I rather marvel ; to such an ex- 
tent is there confusion in the lands. Lo, myself, sick at heart, 
am driving forth my tender she-goats : this, too, O Tityrus, 
I drag along with difficulty : for here just now among the 
thick hazels having yeaned twins, the hope of a flock, she left 
them, alas ! on the naked flinty rock. This calamity, I re- 
member, my oaks stricken from heaven often presaged to me, 
had not my mind been infatuated : [often the ill-boding crow 
from a hollow oak presaged. 2 ] But tell me, Tityrus, who 
i* this god of yours ? 

1 Amaryllis, the name of a country girl. Some have supposed that the 
noet spoke of Rome under that name. 

2 This line properly belongs to Eel. ix. 15. " Memini " is elegantly 
;ed with respect to ill omens. Cf. Ter. Phorm. i. 2, 24. B. 



A BUCOLICS. ecl. i. 20- .50 

T. The city, Meliboeus, which they call Rome, I foolish 
imagined to be like this our [Mantua 3 ], whither 4 we shep- 
herds oft are wont to drive down 5 the tender offspring of our 
ewes. So I had known whelps like dogs, so kids [like] their 
dams : thus was I wont to compare great things with small. 
But that city hath raised its head as far above others, as the 
cypresses are wont among the limber shrubs. 6 

M. And what so great a reason had you to visit Rome ? 

T. Liberty; which, though late, yet kindly looked upon 
me although indolent, after my beard began to fall off with a 
whitish hue when I shaved ; yet [on me] she looked, and 
after a long time came, when Amaryllis began to sway me, 
and Galatea had cast me off. For I will not disown it, while 
Galatea ruled me, I had neither hopes of liberty, nor concern 
about my stock. Though many a victim went from my folds, 
and fat cheese was pressed for the ungrateful city, 7 my right 
hand never returned home heavy with money. 

M. I used to wonder, Amaryllis, why disconsolate you 
were invoking the gods ; and for whom you suffered the ap- 
ples to hang on the tree. Your Tityrus hence was absent. 
The very pines, O Tityrus, the fountains, these very copses 
called for thee. 

T. What could I do ? It was neither in my power, while I 
staid here, to deliver myself from servitude, nor elsewhere to 
experience gods so propitious. Here, Meliboeus, I saw that 
youth, to whom for twice six days our altars yearly smoke 
[with incense]. Here first he gave this entreating answer to 
me : " Swains, feed your heifers as formerly, and yoke your 
steers." 

M. Happy old man, your lands then will remain [still in 
your possession], and large enough for you. Though the naked 
flint, and marsh with slimy rush, overspread all the pasture- 
grounds ; yet no unaccustomed fodder shall harm thy languid. 

3 Mantua, a city in the north of Italy on the Mincio, in the neighbour- 
hood of which Virgil was born. 

* li Quo "=" ad quam." This is a common usage in poetry, but is 
scarcely to be imitated in prose. See Muncker on Hyginus, Fab. 3. B. 

5 " Depellere." It must be remembered, that Virgil's village, Andes, 
stood on high ground, and hence the road to the city lay downwards. B. 

6 " Viburnum " is properly the " wayfaring tree." B. 

7 Urbs is emphatically applied to Rome. So Tibull. i. 9, 61, "To 
eanet agricola, e magna cum venerit urbe." B. 



ecl. i. 51—74. BUCOLICS 3 

pregnant ewes ; nor noxious diseases of the neighbouring 
flock shall hurt them. Happy old man ! here, among well- 
known streams and sacred fountains, you will enjoy the cool 
shade. On this side, a hedge planted at the adjoining boun- 
dary, whose willow blossoms are ever fed on by Hyblaean 
bees, 8 shall often court you by its gentle hummings to indulge 
repose. On the other side, the pruner beneath a lofty rock 
shall sing to the breezes : nor meanwhile shall either the 
hoarse wood-pigeons, thy delight, or the turtle from his lofty 
elm, cease to coo. 

T. Sooner therefore shall the fleet stags pasture high in 
the air, and the seas leave the fish naked on the shore ; sooner, 
the bounds of each being traversed, shall the Parthian 9 exile 
drink the Arar, or Germany the Tigris, than his countenance 
be effaced from my breast. 

M. But we must go hence ; some to the parched Africans, 10 
some of us shall visit Scythia, and Oaxes the rapid [river] of 
Crete, and the Britons totally separated from all the world. 
Ah ! shall I ever hereafter, after a length of time, with won- 
der behold my native territories, and the roof of my poor cot, 
piled up with turf; some ears of corn, 11 my [only] kingdom ? 
Shall a ruffian soldier possess these well-cultivated fields ? — a 
barbarian, these my fields of standing corn ? See ! to what 
extremity discord hath reduced us wretched citizens. See ! 
for whom we have sown our fields. Now, Meliboeus, graft 
your pear trees ; in order range your vines. Begone, my 

8 Hyblaean bees, from Hybla, a mountain of Sicily, celebrated for its 
excellent honey. 

9 Parthian, &c. Parthia, now part of Persia, a country of Asia. The 
Arar, or Saone, a river of France, which falls into the Rhone at Lyons 
Germany, a large country of Europe, to the north of Italy. The Tigris, 
a river of Asia, forming a junction with the Euphrates. 

10 Africans, &c. Africa, one of the three divisions of the ancient world. 
Scythia, a general name given by the ancients to the extreme northern 
parts of Europe and Asia. Oaxes, a river in the southern part of the 
island of Crete. The Britons, the inhabitants of Britain, which some 
of the ancients believed was once joined to the continent of Europe. 

11 So the later commentators ; but I am still inclined to follow Servius 
in interpreting aristas " corn seasons." He observes, " quasi rusticns 
per aristas numerat annos." See my note on Soph. Ant. 340. Dind. 
So Silius It. viii. 61, *' Dura rlavas bis tondet messor aristas." Auso- 
nius, however, probably understood it the other way, if we may judge 
from his imitation, Id. 3, " Salve haerediolum majorum regna meo- 
rum." B. 



* BUCOLICS. ecl. i. 75—84. n. 1—20. 

goats, once a happy flock, begone : no more shall I, stretched 
out in my verdant grot, henceforth behold you hanging far 
above me from a rock with bushes overgrown. No carols 
shall I sing ; no more, my goats, as I feed you, shall you 
browse the flowery cytisus and bitter willows. 

T. Yet here this night you may take up your rest with 
me on green leaves. We have mellow apples, soft chestnuts, 
and plenty of fresh-pressed curd. And now the high tops of 
the villages afar smoke, and larger shadows fall from the lofty 
mountains. 

ECLOGUE II. 

The subject of this Eclogue is copied from Theocritus. The shepherd Cory- 
don is deeply enamoured of Alexis, an ungrateful youth of great beauty. 

Alexis. 

The shepherd Corydon burned 1 for beauteous Alexis, the 
darling of his master ; nor had he any thing to hope. Only 
among the thick beeches, high embowering tops, he con- 
tinually came : there, in solitude, with unavailing fondness, he 
cast forth to the mountains and the woods these undigested 
[complaints] : 

Ah, cruel Alexis, for my songs hast thou no care ? on me 
hast thou no pity ? thou wilt surely at last 2 compel me to die. 
Even the cattle now pant after shades and cool retreats ; now 
the thorny brakes shelter even the green lizards ; and Thes- 
tylis pounds the garlic and wild thyme, strong-scented herbs, 
for the reapers spent with the violent heat. But to the hoarse 
grasshoppers in company with me the thickets resound, while 
under the scorching sun I trace thy steps. Was it not better 
to endure the rueful spite and proud disdain of Amaryllis ? 
Would it not [have been better to endure] Menalcas, though 
he was black, though thou wast fair ? Ah, comely boy, trust 
not too much to complexion. White privets fall neglected ; 
the purple hyacinths are gathered. By thee, Alexis, I am 
neglected ; nor dost thou inquire who I am ; how rich in 

1 For this Grecism compare Hermesianax, 37, kcluto \ikv 'Savvoig. 
Nemes. Ecl. ii. 1 , " Formosam Donacen puer Idas et puer Alcon arde- 
bant." B. 

2 The full force of " denique " seems to be, "What then? will you 

force me," &c. B. 



ecl. ii. 20—48. BUCOLICS. 5 

flocksj how abounding in snow-white milk. 3 ~A thousand 
ewes of mine stray on the mountains of Sicily. I want not 
milk in summer ; I have it new even in the cold weather. I 
warble the same airs which Theban Amphion 4 was wont, 
when on Attic Aracynthus 5 he called his herds together. Nor 
am I so deformed : upon the shore I lately viewed myself, 
when, the sea stood unruffled by the winds. I will not fear 
Daphnis, thyself being judge, if my image never deceives me. 
O would it but please thee to inhabit with me our mean rural 
retreats and humble cots, and to pierce the deer, and to drive 
together a flock of kids to the green mallow ! In the woods 
along with me thou shalt rival Pan in singing. Pan 6 first 
taught [men] to join several reeds with wax ; Pan guards 
both the sheep and the shepherds. Nor let it displease thee 
to rub thy lip with a shepherd's reed. What did Amyntas 
not do to learn this same art ? I have a pipe of seven unequal 
reeds compactly joined, of which Damoetas some time ago 
made me a present, and dying, said, Thou ast now its second 
master. Damoetas said : the foolish Amyntas envied. Be- 
sides [I have] two young he-goats I found in a valley not 
safe, whose skins even now are speckled with white ; each 
day they drain both the udders of an ewe ; these I reserve 
for thee. Long Thestylis has begged to have them fronr 
me ; and she shall do so, since my presents are disdaineo 
by you. 

Come hither, O lovely boy ; behold the nymphs bring thee 
lilies in full baskets. For thee, fair Nais, cropping the pale 
violets 7 and heads of poppies, joins the daffodil and flower of 

3 I follow Anthon's punctuation. But Servius defends " nivei pecto- 
ris." There seems little difference. B. 

4 Amphion, the famous king of Thebes who built the walls of that 
city ; the stones whereof he is said to have made to dance into their places 
by the music of his lyre. He is called Dircaeus, either from Dirce, hif/ 
step-mother, whom he put to death for the injuries she had done to his 
mother, Antiope ; or from a fountain in Boeotia of that name. 

5 Ajacynthus was a town on the confines of Attica and Boeotia, 
where was the fountain Dirce : it is called Actseo, Attic, from Acta or 
Acte, the country about Attica, Ovid. Met. lib. ii. 720, " Sic super 
Actaeas agilis Cyllenius arces inclinat cursus." 

6 Pan, the god of shepherds, chiefly worshipped in Arcadia. B. 

7 i. e. gilliflowers or wall-flowers. The term " pale " is here applied 
to denote a pale, tawny hue, not mere whiteness, as Anthon has ob- 
served. B. 



t> BUCOLICS. ecl. ii. 48—73. 

sweet-smelling dill. Then, interweaving them with cassia, 8 
and other fragrant herbs, sets off the soft hyacinths with saf- 
fron marigold. Myself will gather for thee quinces hoary 
with tender down and chestnuts which my Amaryllis loved. 
Plums I will add of waxen hue. On this fruit 9 too shall 
honour be conferred. And you, O laurels, I will crop ; and 
thee, O myrtle, next: for, thus arranged, you mingle sweet 
perfumes. 

Cory don, thou art a clown. Alexis neither minds thy 
presents; nor, if by presents thou shpuldst contend, would 
Iolas yield. Alas, alas, what was the bent of my wretched 
mind ? Undone, I have let the south wind loose among my 
flowers, and the boars in my crystal springs. Ah, madman, 
whom dost thou fly ? The gods themselves have dwelt in 
woods, and the Trojan Paris. Let Pallas herself inhabit the 
citadels she has erected. Let woods above all things delight 
us. The grim lioness pursues the wolf, the wolf on his part 
the goat ; the wanton goat pursues the flowery cytisus ; Co- 
rydon thee, O Alexis. His own peculiar pleasure draws on 
each one. 

See, the steers bring home the plough hung upon the yoke, 
and the retreating sun doubles the growing shadows ; but me 
love still consumes. For what bounds can be set to love ? 
Ah, Corydon, Corydon, what frenzy hath possessed thee? 
Half-pruned is thy vine on the leafy elm. 10 Why rather 
triest n thou not to weave, of osiers and pliant rush, some one 
at least of those implements which thy work requires. Thou 
wilt find another Alexis, if this disdains thee. 

8 The "spurge plant," or " mountain widow-waile," not the aromatic 
plant of the same name. Anthon. 

9 " Pomum " is literally " an apple," but it is also used as a general 
term for all kinds of fruit. 

10 Vines were trained to elms. So Hor. Ep. i. 16, 3, "amicta vitibus 
rJ.mo." B. 

: Literally, " but do you rather," i. e. " than go en in this mad 
way/" B. 



ecl. 111. 1—27. BUCOLICS. 



ECLOGUE III. 

This Eclogue exhibits a trial of skill in singing, between Damcetas and Me- 
nalcas. Palsemon, who is chosen judge, after hearing them, declares his 
inability to decide such an important controversy. 

Menalcas, Damcetas, Pal^emon. 

M. Tell me, Damcetas, whose 1 is that flock ? Is it that of 
Meliboeus ? 

D. No ; but .iEgon's. jEgon lately intrusted it to my care. 

M. Ah skeep, ever "a luckless flock ; while he himself ca- 
resses Neaera, and fears that she may prefer me to him, this 
hireling shepherd milks his ewes twice in an hour ; and the 
juice 2 is filched from the flock, and the milk from the lambs. 

D. Remember, however, that these scandals should with 
more reserve be charged on men. We know both who [cor- 
rupted] you, and in what sacred grot, while the goats looked 
askance ; but the good-natured nymphs smiled. 

M. Then, I suppose, when they saw me with a felonious 
bill hack Mycon's elm-grove and tender vines. 

D. Or here by these old beeches, when you broke the bow 
and arrows of Daphnis : which when you, cross-grained Me- 
nalcas, saw given to the boy, you both repined, and had you 
not, by some means or other, "done him a mischief, you had burst 
[for envy]. 

M. What can masters do, when pilfering slaves are so au- 
dacious ? Miscreant ! did I not see thee entrap that goat of 
Damon, while his mongrel barker 1 with fury ? And when I 
cried out, Whither is he now sneaking off? Tityrus, assemble 
your flock ; you skulked away behind the sedges. 

D. Ought he not, when vanquished in singing, to give me 
the goat which my flute by its music won ? If you know it 
not, that same goat was my own : and Damon himself owned 
it to me, but alleged that he was not able to pay. 

M. You [vanquish] him in piping ? Or was there ever a 
wax -jointed pipe in your possession ? Wast thou not wont, 
thou dunce, in the cross- ways to murder a pitiful tune on a 
squeaking straw ? 

1 "Cujum," from the obsolete " cujus, -a, -wm." B. 

2 i. e. animal lymphs as Edwards observes. Cicero Tusc. Q. ii. 17, 
'* Subdue cibum unum diem athletae, ferre non posse exclamabit." B. 



8 BUCOLICS. ecl. in. 28—59. 

D. Are you willing, then, that each of us try by turns what 
we can do ? This young heifer I stake ; and lest you should 
possibly reject it, she comes twice a day to the milking pail : 
two calves she suckles with her udder: say for what stake 
you will contend against me. 

M. I dare not stake any thing with thee from the flock: 
for I have a sire at home, I have a harsh step-dame : and 
twice a-day both of them number the cattle, and one the kids. 
But what thou thyself shalt own of far greater value, since 
thou choosest to be mad, I will stake my beechen bowls, the 
carved work of divine Alcimedon, 3 round which a curling vine, 
superadded by the skilful carver's art, mantles the clustering 
berries diffusely spread by the pale ivy. In the midst are two 
figures, Conon ; and, who was the other ? He who with his 
wand distributed among the nations the whole globe ; [who 
taught] what seasons the reaper, what the bent ploughman, 
should observe. Nor have I yet applied my lips to them, but 
I keep them carefully laid up 

D. For me too the same Alcimedon made two bowls, and 
with soft acanthus 4 wreathed their handles: Orpheus in the 
midst he placed, and the woods following. Nor have I yet ap- 
plied my lips to them, but keep them carefully laid up. If you 
consider the heifer, you have no reason to extol your bowls. 

M. By no means shalt thou this day escape : I will come 
to any terms you challenge. Let but that very person who 
comes (lo, it is Pakenion) listen to this strain : I will take care 
that you shall not challenge any henceforth at singing. 

D. Come on, then, if thou hast aught [to sing] ; in me 
there shall be no delay: nor do I shun any one. Only, 
neighbour Palasmon, weigh this with the deepest attention ; 
it is a matter of no small importance. 

P. Sing, since we are seated on the soft grass ; and now 
every field, now every tree, is budding forth : now the woods 
look green ; now the year is most beauteous. Begin, Damoe- 
tas : then you, Menalcas, follow. Ye shall sing in alternate 
verses : the Muses love alternate verses. 

3 Alcimedon, an excellent carver, but of what country is uncertain 
Conon, a Greek astronomer of Samos, the contemporary and friend of 
Archimedes, who, probably, was the other figure mentioned by the poet. 

4 Plin. Ep. v. 6, "Acanthus in piano mollis, et, pene dixerim, liq'ii- 
dus." It is the modern " Brankursine." B 



ecl. in. 60-83. BUCOLICS. l l 

D. From Jove, ye Muses, 5 let us begin : all things are 
full of Jove : he cherishes the earth ; by him are my songs 
esteemed. 

M. And me Phoebus loves: for Phoebus 6 are still with me 
his appropriate gifts, the laurel and sweet-blushing hyacinth. 

D. Galatea, wanton girl, pelts me with apples, 7 and flies to 
the willows, but wishes first to be seen. 

M. But my flame Amyntas voluntarily offers himself to me ; 
so that now not Delia's 8 self is more familiar to our dogs. 

D. A present is provided for my love : for I myself marked 
the place where the airy wood-pigeons have built. 

M. What I could, I sent to my boy, ten golden apples 
gathered from a tree in the wood : to-morrow I will send him 
ten others. 

D. O how often, and what things Galatea spoke to me ! 
Some part, ye winds, waft to the ears of the gods. 

M. What avails it, O Amyntas, that you despise me not in 
your heart, if, while you hunt the boars, I watch the toils. 

D. Iolas, send to me Phyllis : it is my birthday. When for 
the fruits I sacrifice a heifer, come thyself. 

M. Iolas, I love Phyllis above others : for at my departure 
she wept, and said, Adieu, fair youth, a long adieu. 

D. The wolf is fatal to the flocks ; showers to ripened 
corn ; winds to the trees ; to me the anger of Amaryllis. 

M. Moisture is grateful to the sown corn ; the arbute to 
weaned kids ; the limber willow to the teeming cattle ; to me, 
Amyntas alone. 

5 Muses, goddesses who presided over poetry, music, &c. The nine 
Muses were called the Pierian Sisters, from Pieria in Macedonia, where 
they were born. Virgil also calls them Sicilian Muses, because Theo- 
critus, the celebrated pastoral poet, was a native of Sicily ; and Libethrian 
nymphs, from Libethra, a mountain of Boeotia, in Greece. 

6 Phoebus, a name given to Apollo. The " laurel " refers to his mistress 
Daphne, who was changed into that tree, whilst flying from her lover. B. 

7 The apple, under the Latin name of which {malum) the Romans 
comprehended also the quince, the pomegranate, the citron, the peach, 
&c, was sacred to Venus, whose statues sometimes bore a poppy in one 
hand and an apple in the other. A present of an apple, or a partaking 
of an apple with another, was a mark of affection ; and so, also, to throw 
an apple at one. To dream of apples was also deemed by lovers a good 
omen. Anthon. 

8 Delia. Diana was so called, because she was born in the island of 
Delos. 



10 BUCOLICS. ecl in. 84—105. 

D. Pollio loves my muse, though rustic : ye Pierian Sis- 
ters, feed a heifer for your reader. 

M. Pollio himself too composes unrivalled verses : feed 
[for him] the bull which already butts with the horn, and 
spurns the sand with his feet. 

D. Let him who loves thee, Pollio, rise to the same state tc 
which Tie rejoices that thou [hast risen] ; for him let honey 
flow, and the prickly bramble bring forth amomum. 

M. Who hates not Bavius' 9 verse, may love thine, O 
Maevius ; and the same may yoke foxes, and milk he-goats. 

D. Ye swains who gather flowers, and strawberries that 
grow on the ground, oh fly hence ; a cold snake lurks in the 
grass. 10 

M. Forbear, sheep, to advance too far ; it is not safe trust- 
ing to the bank ; the ram himself is but now drying his fleece. 

D. Tityrus, from the river remove your browsing goats ; 
I myself, when it is time, will wash them all in the pool. 

M. Pen up the sheep, ye swains : if the heat should dry up 
the milk as of late, in vain shall we squeeze the teats with our 
hands. 

D. Alas, how lean is my bull amid the fattening vetch ! 
the same love is the bane of the herd and of the herdsman. 

M. Surely love is not the cause with these : they scarcely 
stick to their bones. Some evil eye or other bewitches my 
tender lambs. 

D. Tell me, (and you shall be my great Apollo,) where 
heaven's circuit extends no farther than three ells. 11 

9 Bavius and Maevius, two contemptible poets in the age of Augustus, 
contemporary with Virgil. 

10 The Greek proverb is, V7rb ttclvtI XLOq) cr/c6p7rioc, ["under every 
stone a scorpion,"] in Carcinus apud Athen. xv. 15. With regard to the 
epithet, " frigidus," Kiessling, on Theocr. xv. 58, quotes a remark of the 
Scholiast on Nicander Th. 291, to the effect that the epithet ipvxpbg is 
applied to all reptiles in a similar manner. B. 

11 Numerous explanations have been given to the enigma here stated, 
some making the reference to be to a well ; others, to a pit in the centre of 
Rome, in the Comitium, &c. The best solution, however, is that of As- 
conius Pedianus, who heard Virgil himself say, that he meant to allude 
to a certain Ccelius, a spendthrift at Mantua, who, having run through all 
that he possessed, retained merely enough ground for a sepulchre ; and 
that this very sepulchre, embracing about three ells in extent, is what 
Damoetas refers to in the text, the whole enigma turning upon the similarity 
in form and sound between coeli, " of heaven," and Coeli, (i e. CoelitJ " of 
Oeiius." Anthon. 



ecl. in. 106—111. iv. 1—15. BUCOLICS. 1 1 

M. Tell me in what land flowers grow, inscribed with the 
names of kings ; 12 and have Phillis to thyself alone. 

P. It is not for us to determine so great a controversy be- 
tween you ; both you and he deserve the heifer ; and whoever 
[so well] shall sing the fears of sweet [successful] love, and 
experimentally describe the bitterness of [disappointment]. 13 
Now, swains, shut up your streams ; the meads have imbibed 
enough. 

ECLOGUE IV. 

V irgil, in this Eclogue, is supposed by some to refer to the birth of Marcellus, 
the son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus ; or to a son of his patron, the 
consul Pollio, to whom the Eclogue is inscribed. Others consider it to be 
founded on ancient predictions respecting the Messiah, and apply it to our 
blessed Saviour. 

Pollio. 

Ye Sicilian Muses, let us sing somewhat higher strains. 
Vineyards and lowly tamarisks delight not all. If rural lays 
we sing, let those lays be worthy of a consul's ear. The last 
era, of Cumsean l song, is now arrived : The great series of 
ages begins anew. Now, too, returns the virgin Astraea, 2 re- 
turns the reign of Saturn ; now a new progeny is sent down 
from high heaven. Be thou but propitious to the infant boy, 
under whom first the iron age shall cease, and the golden age 
over all the world arise, O chaste Lucina ; now thy own 
Apollo reigns. While thou too, Pollio, while thou art con- 
sul, this glory of our age shall make his entrance ; and the 
great months begin to roll. Under thy conduct, whatever 
vestiges of our guilt remain, shall, being done away, release 
the earth from fear for ever. He shall partake the life of gods, 

13 The allusion is to the hyacinth, which has, according to a poetic le- 
gend, the letters AI marked on its petals, not only as a note of sorrow for 
the death of Hyacinthus, but also as constituting half the name of Ajax, 
i. e. Alag. Anthon. 

13 There is much uncertainty respecting the reading of this passage 
Anthon ingeniously transposes " amores " and " amaros." But I cannot 
help thinking that there is no occasion to alter the common reading. B. 

1 Cumsean song, from Cumse, a city of Italy, north-west of Naples, in 
the vicinity of which resided the celebrated Cumsean Sibyl. 

2 Astraea, in the mythology of the ancients, was the goddess of Justice, 
who resided on earth during the reign of Saturn, or the golden age. Being 
shocked by the impiety of mankind, she returned to heaven, and became 
one of the twelve signs cf the zodiac, under the name of Virgo. 



12 BUCOLICS. ecl. iv. 15-49. 

shall see heroes mingled in society with gods, himself be seen 
by them, and rule the peaceful world with his father's vir- 
tues. Meanwhile the earth, O boy, as her first offerings, shall 
pour thee forth every where, without culture, creeping ivy 
with lady ; s glove, and Egyptian beans with smiling acanthus 
intermixed. The goats of themselves shall homeward convey 
their udders distended with milk ; nor shall the herds dread 
huge overgrown lions. The very cradle shall pour thee forth 
attractive flowers. The serpent also shall die ; and the poison's 
fallacious plant shall die : the Assyrian spikenard shall grow 
in every soil. But soon as thou shalt be able to read the 
praises of heroes, and the achievements of thy sire, and to 
understand what virtue is, 3 the field shall by degrees grow yel- 
low with soft ears of corn ; blushing grapes shall hang on the 
rude brambles and hard oaks shall distil the dewy honey. 
Yet some few footsteps of ancient vice shall remain, to prompt 
[men] to brave the sea in ships, to enclose cities with walls, 
and cleave furrows in the earth. There will then be another 
Tiphys, and another Argo 4 to waft chosen heroes : there shall 
be likewise other wars : and great Achilles 5 shall once more 
be sent to Troy. After this, when confirmed age shall have^ 
ripened thee into man, the sailor shall of himself renounce the 
sea ; nor shall the naval pine barter commodities : all lands 
shall all things produce. The ground shall not endure the 
harrow, nor the vineyard the pruning-hook ; the sturdy 
ploughman, too, shall now release his bulls from the yoke. 
Nor shall the wool learn to counterfeit various colours : but 
the ram himself shall in the meadows tinge his fleece, now 
with sweet-blushing purple, now with saffron dye. Scarlet 
shall spontaneously clothe the lambs as they feed. The Des- 
tinies, harmonious in the established order of the Fates, sung 
to their spindles: "Ye ages, run on thus." Dear offspring 
of the gods, illustrious increase of Jove, set forward on thy 

3 Servius rightly understands the successive studies of poetry and phi- 
losophy, as they are enumerated in Plato Protag. § 43. B. 

4 Argo, the name of the ship which carried Jason and his fifty-four 
companions to Colchis, to recover the golden fleece. Tiphys, who was 
pilot of the ship, died before reaching Colchis. The Argonautic expe- 
dition happened about 1263 b. c. 

5 Achilles, the bravest of all the Greeks in the Trojan war, where ho 
performed prodigies of valour. He slew Hector, but was himself at last 
."•lain by Paris. 



ecl. iv. 50— 63. v. 1— 12. BUCOLICS. 13 

way to signal honours ; the time is now at hand. See the 
world with its convex weight nodding to thee, the earth, the 
regions of the sea, and heavens sublime : See how all things 
rejoice at the approach of this age. Oh that my last stage of 
life may continue so long, and so much breath as shall suffice 
to sing thy deeds ! Neither Thracian Orpheus, 6 nor Linus, 
shall surpass me in song, though his mother aid the one, and 
his s^re the other, Calliopea Orpheus, and fair Apollo Linus. 
Should even Pan with me contend, Arcadia's self being judge, 
even Pan should own himself overcome, Arcadia's self bein^r 
judge. Begin, sweet babe, to distinguish thy mother by thy 
smiles ; 7 ten months brought on thy mother tedious qualms. Be- 
gin, young boy ; that child on whom his parents never smiled, 
nor god ever honoured with his table, nor goddess with her bed. 

ECLOGUE V. 

In this Eclogue, the shepherds Menalcas and Mopsus celebrate the funeral 

eulogium of Daphnis. 

Menalcas, Mopsus. 

Me. Since, Mopsus, we are met, both skilful swains, you 
in piping on the slender reed, I in singing verses, why have 
we not sat down here among the elms intermixed with hazels ? 

Mo. You, Menalcas, are my superior : it is just that I be 
ruled by you ; whether under the shades that waver by the 
fanning zephyrs, or rather into this grotto we repair : see how 
the wild vine with scattered clusters hath spread the grotto. 

Me. Amyntas alone in our mountains may vie with thee. 

Mo. What if the same should vie with Phoebus' self in 
song ? 

Me. Begin you, Mopsus, first ; whether you are disposed 
to sing the passion of Phyllis, 1 or the praises of Alcon, or the 
strife of Codrus ; begin : Tityrus will tend the browsing kids. 

6 Orpheus, the son of CEagrus, king of Thrace, and the muse Calliope, 
celebrated for his masterly skill in music. 

7 Heyne wrongly refers " risu " to the mother's smile. B. 

1 The names here introduced, namely, Phyllis, Alcon, and Codrus, be- 
long not to real characters, but to fictitious pastoral personages. Phyllis, 
therefore, must not be confounded with the daughter of Lycurgus, king of 
Thrace, who was abandoned by Demophoon, nor Codrus with the early 
king of Athens. Anthon. 



14 BUCOLICS. ecl. v. 13—51. 

Mo. Nay, I will rather try those strains which lately 1 
inscribed on the green bark of the beech tree, and sang and 
noted them by turns : then bid Amyntas vie with me. 

Me. As far as the limber willow is inferior to the pale 
olive, and humble lavender to crimson beds of roses ; so far 
is Amyntas, in my judgment, inferior to you. 

Mo. But, shepherds, cease further words : we have reached 
the grot. The nymphs wept Daphnis cut off by cruel death ; 
ye hazels and ye streams witnessed [the mourning of] the 
nymphs, when the mother, embracing the hapless corpse of 
her son, reproached both gods and stars with cruelty. The 
swains, Daphnis, then forgat to drive their fed cattle to the 
cooling streams : no quadruped either tasted of the brook, or 
touched a blade of grass. The savage mountains, Daphnis, 
and the woods, can tell that even the African lions mourned 
thy death. Daphnis taught to yoke Armenian tigers in the 
chariot ; Daphnis, to lead up the dances in honour of Bacchus, 
and wreathe the pliant wands with soft leaves. As the vine 
is the glory of the trees, as grapes are of the vine, as the bull 
is of the flock, as standing corn of fertile fields ; so thou wast 
all the glory of thy fellow-swains. Ever since the Fates 
snatched thee away, Pales 2 herself, and Apollo too, have left 
the fields. Luckless darnel, and the barren oats, spring up in 
these furrows, where we were wont to sow the plump barley. 
Instead of the soft violet, instead of the purple narcissus, the 
thistle springs up, and the thorn with its sharp prickles. 
Strew the ground with leaves, ye shepherds, form a shade 
over the fountains : these rites Daphnis for himself ordains. 
And form a tomb ; and on that tomb inscribe this epitaph : I 
am Daphnis of the groves, hence even to the stars renowned, 
the shepherd of a fair flock, fairer myself. 

Me. Such, matchless poet, is thy song to me, as slumbers 
to the weary on the grass ; as in scorching heat to quench 
thirst from a salient rivulet of fresh water. Nor equal you 
your master in the pipe only, but also 3 in the voice. Happy 
swain, you shall now be the next to him. Yet, I will sing 
in my turn these verses of mine, such as they are, and exalt 

2 Pales, the goddess of sheepfolds and of pastures, was worshipped with 
great solemnity among the Romans. 

3 I have supplied the ellipse of "et," with Burm. on Phaedr. Prol 
i. 6. B. 



cl. v. 51— 79. BUCOLICS. 15 

your Daphnis to the stars : Daphnis I will raise to the stars ; 
me too Daphnis loved. 

Mo. Can aught be more acceptable to me than such a pre- 
sent? The swain himself was most worthy to be sung, and 
Stimichon hath long since praised to me that song of thine. 

Me. Daphnis, robed in white, admires the courts of heaven, 
to which he is a stranger, and under his feet beholds the clouds 
und stars. Hence mirthful pleasure fills the woods and every 
field, Pan and the shepherds, and the virgin Dryads. 4 The 
wolf doth neither meditate plots against the sheep, nor are 
any toils set to insnare the deer ; good Daphnis delights in 
rest. For joy, even the unshorn mountains raise their voices 
to the stars : now the very rocks, the very groves, resound 
these notes : a god, a god, he is, Menalcas. O be propitious 
and indulgent to thy own ! Behold four altars ; lo, Daphnis, 
two for thee, 5 and two for Phoebus. Two bowls foaming with 
new milk, and two goblets of fat oil, will I present to thee 
each year : and chiefly, enlivening the feast with plenty of 
the joys of Bacchus, 6 before the fire if it be winter ; if har- 
vest, in the shade, 7 I will pour thee forth Ariusian wine, a 
new kind of nectar. Damcetas and Lyctian JEgon shall sing 
to me : Alphesiboeus shall mimic the frisking satyrs. These 
rites shall be ever thine, both when we pay our solemn an- 
niversary vows to the nymphs, and when we make the circuit 
of the fields. While the boar shall love the tops of mountains ; 
while fishes love the floods ; while bees on thyme shall feed, 
and grasshoppers on dew ; thy honour, name, and praise shall 
still remain. As to Bacchus and Ceres, 8 so to thee the 

4 Dryads, nymphs who presided over the woods. 

5 " Lo! two (altars) for thee, O Daphnis, two larger ones for Phoe- 
bus." Observe that altaria is here in opposition with aras understood. 
This passage shows plainly that the distinctive difference between ara and 
altare is here meant to be observed. Ara is an altar of smaller size, on 
which incense, fruits of the earth, and similar oblations are offered up ; 
altare is an altar of larger size, on which victims are burned. This serves 
to explain, also, what immediately follows. To Daphnis, as to a deified 
hero, no bloody offerings are to be made ; the oblations are to consist 
merely of milk, oil, and wine. Anthon. 

6 Bacchus first taught the use of the vine, &c, and was therefore call- 
ed the God of wine. Ariusia, i. e. Chios, now Scio, an island in the 
Archipelago, celebrated for its excellent wine. 

7 Cicero de Senect. 14, "Me vero delectant et pocula minuta atque 
rorantia,et refrigeratio aestate, et vicissim aut Sol aut ignis hibernus." I\* 

8 Ceres, the goddess of corn and of harvests 



16 BUCOLICS. ecl. v. 80—90. vi. 1—13. 

swains shall yearly perform their vows : thou too shalt bind 
them by their vows. 

Mo. "What, what returns shall I make to thee for so excel- 
lent a song ? For neither the whispers of the rising south 
wind, nor shores lashed by the wave, nor rivers that glide 
down among the stony vales, please me so much. 

Me. First I will present you with this brittle reed. This 
taught me, " Cory don for fair Alexis burned." This same 
hath taught me/" Whose is this flock? is it that of Meli- 
boeus?" ; 

Mo. But do you, Menalcas, accept this sheep-hook, beau- 
tiful for its uniform knobs and brass, which Antigenes never 
could obtain, though he often begged it of me ; and at that 
time he was worthy to be loved. 

ECLOGUE VI. 

Silemis, a demi-god and companion of Bacchus, was noted for his love of 
wine and skill in music : here he relates concerning the formation of the 
world, and the nature of things, according to the doctrine of the Epicu- 
reans. 

Selenus. 

My Thalia is the first who deigned to sport in Syracusian 
strain, nor blushed to inhabit the woods. When I offered to 
sing of kings and battles, Apollo twitched my ear, and warned 
me thus : A shepherd, Tityrus, should feed his fattening 
sheep, and sing in humble strain. 1 Now will I, O Varus, 2 
(for there will be many who will desire to celebrate thy 
praises, and record disastrous wars,) exercise my rural muse 
on the slender reed. I sing not unbidden strains : yet whoso 
enamoured [with my strains], whoso shall read even these, to 
him, Varus, our tamarisks, each grove shall sing of thee : 
nor is any page more acceptable to Phoebus, than on whose 
front the name of Varus is inscribed. Proceed, Muses. 

Deductum dicere carmen, a humble or slender song; a metaphor 
taken from wool spun out till it becomes fine and slender. So Hor. lib. 
ii. 1, 225, Tenui deducta poemata filo. And Tibul. lib. i. 3, 86, Deducat 
plena stamina longa colo. 

2 Varus, Quintilius Varus, a Roman proconsul, who commanded an 
army in Germany, where he lost his life, with three whole legionti 

K. D. 10. 



2,ol. vi. 13-35. BUCOLICS. 17 

Chromis and Mnasylus, the youthful swains, saw Silenus lying 
asleep in his cave, his veins, as usual, swoln with yesterday's 
debauch. His garlands just 3 fallen from his head, lay at some 
distance, and his heavy flagon hung by its worn handle. 
Taking hold of him, (for often the sire had amused them both 
with the promise of a song,) they bind him with his own 
wreaths. JEgle associates herself with them, and comes un- 
expectedly upon the timorous swains; -ZEgle, fairest of the 
Naiads ; and j ust as he is opening his eyes, she paints his 
forehead and temples with blood-red mulberries. He, smiling 
at the trick, says, Why do ye fasten these bonds ? Loose me, 
swains : it is enough that I have suffered myself to be seen. 
Hear the song w^hich you desire : the song for you ; for her 
I shall find another reward. At the same time he begins. 
Then you might have seen the Fauns and, savages frisking in 
measured dance, then the stiff oaks waving their tops. Nor 
rejoices the Parnassian rock so much in Phcebus: 4 nor do 
Rhodope and Ismarus 5 so much admire Orpheus. For he 
sang how, through the mighty void, 6 the seeds of earth, and 
air, and sea, and pure fire, had been together ranged ; how 
from these principles all the elements, and the world's tender 7 
globe itself, combined into a system : then how the soil began 
to harden, to shut up the waters apart 8 within the sea, and by 

3 Tantum capti delapsa, "Having fallen to such a distance from his 
head." It is very hard to say what is here the true meaning of tantum. 
If we join it with procul, it makes a most harsh construction; if we ren- 
der it " only," it clashes with procul, unless this stand for juxta, which 
is too forced ; if, with Voss., we make it equivalent to modo, "just," it 
appears frigid and tame. We have ventured, therefore, to regard it as 
standing for in tantum. Anthon. 

4 Parnassian rock. Parnassus, a celebrated mountain of Phocis in 
Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, remarkable for its two summits. 

5 Rhodope and Ismarus, two high mountains in Thrace. 

6 Magnum per inane. The Epicureans, whose philosophy is here 
sung, taught that incorporeal space, here called magnum inane, and cor- 
poreal atoms were the first principles of all things : their void space they 
considered as the womb, in which the seeds of all the elements were 
ripened into their distinct forms. 

7 " Tener," Anthon says, " because just created." But I prefer under- 
standing it of the plastic nature of the materials, with Pliny, Hist. Nat. 
ii. 3. B. 

8 Et discludere Nerea ponto. Literally, " to shut up Nereus apart in 
the sea," i. e. to separate the waters into their channel : Nereus the sea- 
Sod being here put for the waters in general. 

G 



18 BUCOLICS. ecl. vi. 36-66. 

degrees to assume the forms of things : and how anon tho 
earth was astonished to see the new-born sun shine forth ; and 
how from the clouds, suspended high, the showers descend : 
when first the woods began to rise, and when the animals, yet 
few, began to range the unknown mountains. He next tells 
of the stones which Pyrrha 9 threw, the reign of Saturn, the 
fowls of Caucasus, 10 and the theft of Prometheus. To these 
he adds the fountain where the sailors had invoked aloud 
Hylas 11 lost; how the whole shore resounded Hylas, Hylas. 
And he soothes Pasiphae 12 in her passion for the snow-white 
bull: happy woman if herds had never been! Ah, ill-fated 
maid, what madness seized thee ? The daughters of Proetus 13 
with imaginary lowings filled the fields : yet none of them 
pursued such vile embraces of a beast, however they might 
dread the plough about their necks, and often feel for horns on 
their smooth foreheads. Ah, ill-fated maid, thou now art 
roaming on the mountains ! He, resting his snowy side on the 
soft hyacinth, ruminates the blenched herbs under some 
gloomy oak, or courts some female in the numerous herd. Ye 
nymphs, shut up now, ye Dictasan 14 nymphs, shut up the 
avenues of the forests, if any where by chance my bullock's 
wandering footsteps may offer to my sight. Perhaps some 
heifers may lead him on to the Gortynian stalls, 15 either 

9 Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion, in whose age all mankind was de- 
stroyed by a deluge, these two excepted. On consulting the oracle, they 
* r ere directed to repair the loss, by throwing stones behind their backs ; 
those which Pyrrha threw were changed into women, and those of 
Deucalion into men. 

10 Caucasus, a lofty mountain of Asia, between the Euxine and Caspian 
Seas. Prometheus, having made a man of clay, which he animated with 
fire stolen from heaven, was, for the impiety, chained to a rock on the t«p 
of Caucasus, where a vulture continually preyed upon his liver. 

11 Hylas, a youth, the favourite of Hercules, who accompanied the 
Argonautic expedition, but was drowned in the Ascanius, a river of 
Bithynia, which afterwards received his name. 

12 Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, king of Crete, who disgraced herself by 
her unnatural passion. 

13 Proetus, king of Argolis, whose three daughters became insane for 
neglecting the worship of Bacchus, or, according to some, for preferring 
themselves to Juno. 

14 Dictrean nymphs, Cretan nymphs from Dicte, a mountain in the 
island of Crete, where Jupiter was worshipped. 

15 Gortynian stalls. Gortyna, an ancient city of Crete, the country 
[.round which produced excellent pastures. 






ROL. vi. 60—77. BUCOLICS. 19 

enticed by the verdant pasture, or in pursuit of the herd. 
Then he sings the virgin, 16 charmed with the apples of the 
Hesperides : then he surrounds the sisters of Phaeton 17 with 
the moss of bitter bark, and raises the stately alders from the 
ground. . Then he sings how one of the Sister Muses led 
Gallus, wandering by the streams of Permessus, 18 to the 
Aonian mountains; and how the whole choir of Phoebus 
rose up to do him honour : how Linus, the shepherd of song 
divine, his locks adorned with flowers and bitter parsley, 
thus addressed him : Here, take these pipes the Muses give 
thee, which before [they gave] to the Ascraean 19 sage ; by 
which he was wont to draw down the rigid wild ashes from 
the mountains. On these let the origin of Grynium's grove 20 
be sung by you ; that there may be no grove in which Apollo 
may glory more. Why should I tell how [he sang] of 
Scylla 21 the daughter of Nisus ? or of her whom, round the 
snowy wa*ist, begirt with barking monsters, fame records to 
have vexed 22 the Dulichian ships, and in the deep abyss, alas, 
to have torn in pieces the trembling sailors with sea-dogs ? 

16 i. e. Atalanta, daughter of Schoeneus, king of Scyros, or, according 
to others, of Iasius, king of Arcadia, who was famed for her beauty, 
which gained her many admirers. She consented to bestow her hand on 
him that could outrun her, though he was to die if he lost the race. 
Many of her suitors had perished in the contest, when Hippomenes offered 
himself; during the race, he dropped, at intervals, three golden apples 
from the garden of the Hesperides, which Atalanta stopping to pick up, he 
arrived first at the goal, and obtained her in marriage. 

17 The sisters of Phaeton, according to the mythologists, bewailing his 
unhappy end, were changed into poplars by Jupiter. 

18 Permessus, a river issuing from Mount Helicon in Aonia, (Bceotia,) 
sacred to the Muses. 

19 Ascraean sage. Hesiod, so named from Ascra, a village of Bceotia 
in Greece, where he was born. 

20 Grynium's grove. Grynium, a town on the coast of iEo'iia in Asia 
Minor, where Apollo had a temple with a sacred grove. 

21 Scylla, a daughter of Nisus, king of Megara, feigned to have been 
changed into a lark. Dulichian ships, those of Ulysses, who was king 
of the island of Dulichium. After the fall of Troy, Ulysses, in his return 
home, encountered incredible hardships, and with difficulty escaped the 
rocks of Scylla, so named from a daughter of Typhon, who was changed 
by Circe into a frightful monster, when, throwing herself into the sea be- 
tween Italy and Sicily, she became the dangerous rocks which continued 
to bear her name. 

22 Virgil's use of " vexare" is discussed by Gellius, ii. 6, and Macrob. 
Sat. vi. 7. From their remarks, the word harass best appears to expresi 
its meaning. B 

c 2 



?o 



BUCOLICS. ecl. vi. 78-86. vn. 1—9. 



or how he described the limbs of Tereus 23 transformed? 
what banquets and what presents Philomela for him pre- 
pared ? with what speed he sought the deserts, and with what 
wings, ill-fated one, he fluttered over the palace once his own ? 
All those [airs] he sings, which happy Eurotas 24 heard, and 
bade its laurels learn, when Phoebus played of old. The val- 
leys, stricken [with the sound], re-echo to the stars; till 
Vesper 25 warned [the shepherds] to pen their sheep in the 
folds, and recount their number; and came forth from re- 
luctant Olympus. 

ECLOGUE VII. 



In this Eclogue, Virgil, as Meliboeus, gives an account of a poetical contest 
between Thyrsis and Corydon. 

Melibceus, Corydon, Thyrsis. 

M. Daphnis by chance sat down under a whispering 1 
holm-oak, and Corydon and Thyrsis had driven their flocks 
together; Thyrsis his sheep, Corydon his goats distended 
with milk : both in the flower of their age, Arcadians both, 2 
equally matched at singing, and ready to answer. To this 
quarter, while I was fencing my tender myrtles from the cold, 
the he-goat himself, the husband 3 of the flock, from me had 
strayed away : and I espy Daphnis : when he in turn saw me, 
he cried out, Come hither quickly, Melibceus ; your goat and 

23 Tereus, a king of Thrace. He married Progne, a daughter of Pan- 
dion, king of Athens, who, in revenge for his having violated her sister 
Philomela, and cut out her tongue, killed his son Itys, and served him 
up at a banquet. According to the poets, they were all changed into dif- 
ferent kinds of birds. 

24 Eurotas, (Vasili Potamo,) a river of Laconia, washing ancient Sparta, 
and falling into the Mediterranean. 

25 Vesper, the planet Venus, or the evening star. 

1 The rustling of the breeze in the leaves is thus said \pi9vpi%SLv in 
Greek. B. 

2 i. e. both skilled in music, which was greatly cultivated among the 
Arcadians. No reference to their country is intended, but merely to 
their musical excellence. B. 

3 Vir gregis ipse caper. " The he-goat himself, the husband of my 
flock." (Compare Theocritus, viii. 49 : T Q Tpaye, rav XsvKav aiy&v 
dvEp.) Observe the force of ipse here, implying that he was followed by 
the rest of the flock ; (Wagner, Quaest. Virg. xviii. 2, b. ;) and hence wt 
iiave, in verse 9th, " caper tibi salvus et hosdi." Anthon. So Martial, 
'lip. ix. 31, "pecorisque maritus tanigeri." B. 



ecl. vii. 10-42. BUCOLICS. 21 

kids are safe ; and, if you can stay a while, rest under thin 
shade. Hither thy bullocks of themselves will come across 
the meads to drink. Here Mincius 4 hath fringed the verdant 
banks with tender reed, and from the sacred oak swarms of 
bees resound. What could I do ? I had neither Alcippe, nor 
Phyllis, to shut up at home my weaned lambs : but there was 
a great match proposed, Corydon against Thyrsis. After all, 
I postponed my serious business to their play. In alternate 
verses therefore the two began to contend : alternate verses 
the Muses would have me record. These Corydon, those 
Thyrsis, each in his turn recited. 

C. Ye Libethrian nymphs, my delight, either favour me 
with such a song as ye did my Codrus 5 (he makes verses next 
to those of Phoebus) ; or, if we cannot all attain to this, here 
on this sacred pine my tuneful pipe shall hang. 

T. Ye Arcadian shepherds, deck with ivy your rising poet, 
that Codrus' sides may burst with envy. Or, if he praise me 
beyond what I desire, bind my brow with lady's glove, lest his 
evil tongue should hurt your future poet. 

C. To thee, Delia, young Mycon [for me presents] this 
head of a bristly boar, and the branching horns of a long-lived 
stag. If this success be lasting, thou shalt stand at thy full 
length in polished marble, thy legs with scarlet buskin bound. 

T. A pail of milk and these cakes, Priapus, 6 are enough 
for you to expect [from me] ; you are the keeper of a poor ill- 
furnished garden. Now we have raised thee of marble such 
as the times admit; but, if the breed recruit my flock, thou 
shalt be of gold. 

C. Galatea, daughter of Nereus, sweeter to me than Hybla's 
thyme, whiter than swans, fairer than white ivy ; soon as the 
well-fed steers shall return to their stalls, come, if thou hast 
any regard for Corydon. 

T. May I even appear to thee more bitter than Sardinian 
Kerbs, 7 more rugged than the furze, more worthless than sea- 

4 Mincius, the Mincio, a river in the north of Italy, falling into the 
Po below Mantua. 

5 Codrus, a Latin poet, contemporary with Virgil. 

6 Priapus, 4 a deity among the ancients, who presided over gardens. He 
was the son of Bacchus and Venus, and was chiefly worshipped at 
Lampsacus on the Hellespont. 

7 Sardinian herbs, a bitter herb which grew in the island of Sardinia, 
said to cause convulsions and death. 



22 BUCOLICS. ecl. vn. 43—68 

weed cast upon the shore, if this day be not longer to me than 
a whole year. Go home, my well-fed steers, if you have any 
shame, go home. 

C. Ye mossy fountains, and grass more soft than sleep, and 
the green arbute-tree that covers you with its thin shade, 
ward off the midsummer heat from my flock ; now scorching 
summer comes, now the buds swell on the fruitful tendrils. 

T. Here is a glowing hearth, and resinous torches ; here is 
always a great fire, and lintels sooted with continual smoke. 
Here we just as much regard the cold of Boreas, 8 as either 
the wolf does the number [of sheep], or impetuous rivers 
their banks. 

C. Junipers and prickly chestnuts stand thick ; 9 beneath 
each tree its apples here and there lie strewn ; now all things 
smile ; but, were fair Alexis to go from these hills, you would 
see even the rivers dry. 

T. The field is parched ; by the intemperature of the air 
the dying herbage thirsts ; Bacchus has envied our hills the 
shadow of his vine; [but,] at the approach of our Phyllis, 
every grove shall look green, and Jove abundantly descend in 
joyous showers. 

C. The poplar is most grateful to Hercules, 10 the vine to 
Bacchus, to lovely Venus 11 the myrtle, to Phoebus his own 
laurel ; Phyllis loves the hazels : so long as Phyllis loves 
them, neither the myrtle nor the laurel of Phoebus shall sur- 
pass the hazels. 

T. The ash is fairest in the woods, the pine in the gardens," 
the poplar by the rivers, the fir on lofty mountains : but if, 
my charming Lycidas, you make me more frequent visits, the 
ash in the woods shall yield to thee, and the pine in the 
gardens. 

8 Boreas, the name of the north wind. According to the ancient poets, 
Borsas was the son of Astraeus and Aurora. 

9 Anthon rightly observes that this is the force of " stant." So Luta- 
tius Placidus on Stat. Theb. x. 157, interprets "stat furor," by "plenus 
est," quoting this line as an example. B. 

10 Hercules, the most celebrated hero of fabulous history, the son of 
Jupiter and Alcmena, was, after a life spent in achieving the most in- 
credible exploits, ranked among the gods, and received divine honours. 

11 Venus, a principal deity among the ancients, the goddess of love 
and beauty. She was the wife of Vulcan, but passionately loved Adonip 
and Anchises; bv the latter she became the mother of iEneas. 



:<jl. vil. 69, 70. vni. 1—21 BUCOLICS. 23 

M. These verses I remember, and that vanquished Thyrsi s 
in vain contended. From that time Corydon, Corydon i? 
our man. 

ECLOGUE VIII. 

This Bucolic contains the strains of Damon for the loss of his mistress; and 
Alphesibceus records the charms of an enchantress. 

Damon, Alphesibceus. 

The muse of the shepherds, Damon and Alphesiboeus, whom 
the heifers, unmindful of their pasture, admired contending, 
and by whose song the lynxes were astonished, and the rivers, 
having changed their courses, stood still ; the muse of Damon 
and Alphesiboeus I sing. - 

Whether thou art now passing for me l over the rocks of 
broad Timavus, 2 or cruising along the coast of the Illyrian 
Sea ; 3 say, will that day ever come, when I shall be indulged 
to sing thy deeds ? say, shall it come that I may be indulged 
to diffuse over the world thy verses, which alone merit com- 
parison with Sophocles' 4 lofty style ? With thee my muse 
commenced ; with thee shall end. Accept my songs begun 
by thy command, and permit this ivy to creep around thy 
temples among thy victorious laurels. 

Scarce had the cold shades of night retired from the sky, a 
time when the dew on the tender grass is most grateful to the 
cattle, when Damon, leaning against a tapering olive, thus 
began : — 

D. Arise, Lucifer, 5 and preceding usher in the cheerful 
day ; while I, deceived by the feigned passion of my mistress 
Nisa, complain ; and to the gods, now that I die, (though I 
have availed me nought in taking them to witness,) yet in my 
last hour appeal. Begin with me, my pipe, Maenalian strains. 

1 " Mihi " is the dativus ethicus. B. 

2 Timavus, the Timavo, a river of Italy, rising at the foot of the Alps 
and falling into the gulf of Trieste. At its mouth are several small islands 
containing hot springs. 

3 Illyrian Sea, the Adriatic Sea between Italy and Dalmatia, &c. 

4 Sophocles, a celebrated tragic poet of Athens, remarkable for sub- 
limity of style. He was contemporary with Pericles and Euripides, and 
died b. c. 406. 

5 Lucifer, the name of the planet Venus, or morning star ; as Hesperur, 
was of the same planet, or evening star. 



^4 BUCOLICS. ecl. viii. 22- 51. 

Masnalus 6 always has a vocal grove and shaking pines; he 
ever hears the loves of shepherds, and Pan, the first who suf- 
fered not the reeds to be 7 neglected. Begin with me, my 
pipe, Masnalian strains. Nisa is bestowed on Mopsus ! what 
may we lovers not expect ? Griffins now shall match with 
horses, and in the succeeding age the timorous does with dogs 
shall come to drink. Mopsus, cut your fresh nuptial torches : 
for thee a wife is on the point of being brought home. Strew 
the nuts, 8 bridegroom ; Hesperus for thee forsakes GEta. 9 
Begin with me, my pipe, Masnalian strains. O thou matched 
to a worthy spouse ! while you disdain all others, and while 
you detest my pipe and goats, my shaggy eye-brows, and my 
overgrown beard ; nor believe that any god regards the affairs 
of mortals. Begin with me, my pipe, Masnalian strains. 
When thou wast but a child, I saw thee with thy mother 
gathering the dewy apples on our hedges ; I was your guide ; 
I had then just entered on the year next after eleven, I was 
then just able to reach the slender boughs from the ground. 
As soon as I saw thee, how was I undone ! how ah evil 
error bore me away ! Begin with me, my pipe, Masnalian 
strains. Now I know what Love is : Ismarus, or Rhodope, or 
the remotest Garamantes, 10 produced him on rugged cliffs, a 
boy not of our race or blood. Begin with me, my pipe, Mas- 
nalian strains. Relentless Love taught the mother 11 to stain 
her hands in her own children's blood ; a cruel mother too thou 
wast : whether more cruel was the mother or more impious 
the boy? Impious was the boy: thou, mother, too, wast 
cruel. Begin with me, my pipe, Masnalian strains. Now let 

6 Msenalus, now Roino, a mountain of Arcadia in Greece, sacred to 
Pan. It was covered with pine trees. 

7 "Esse" is elegantly omitted after such words as "pati," "sinere," 
&c. Nemes. Cyn. 70, " Omnia tentantem passi." Apul. de Deo Socr. 
" Sejugam veluti debilem passa est." Seneca, Ined. 182, " Quemve secu- 
rum sinit." Virg. ^En. i. 389, "Nee plura querentem Passa Venus." B 

8 On this custom compare Catull. Epith. p. 98. Muret. *' Da nucis 
pueris iners Concubine, satis diu Lucisti nucibus." B. 

9 GSta, a celebrated mountain, or, more properly, chain of mountains, 
between Thessaly and Greece Proper. It was so high, that the poets 
feigned the sun, moon, and stars rose behind it. 

10 Garamantes, a people in the interior of Africa, now called Zaara. 

11 Matrem. This cruel mother is Medea, who, to be avenged on Jason 
for preferring another mistress to her, slew her sons whom she bore to 
him, before his eyes. 



ecl. viii. 52-84. BUCOLICS. 25 

the wolf of himself fly from the sheep ; the hard oaks bear 
golden apples ; the alder bloom with narcissus ; the tamarisks 
distil rich amber from their barks ; let owls with swans con- 
tend ; be Tityrus an Orpheus ; an Orpheus in the woods, an 
Arion 12 among the dolphins. Begin with me, my pipe, Mae- 
nalian strains. Let all things become very mid ocean ; ye 
woods, farewell. From the summit of yon aerial mountain 
will I throw myself headlong into the waves : take this last 
present from me dying. Cease, my pipe, now cease Maena- 
lian strains. 

Thus Damon : ye Pierian muses, say what Alphesiboeus 
sung. We cannot all do all things. 

A. Bring forth the water, and bind these altars with a soft 
fillet: burn thereon oily vervain and male 13 frankincense, 
that I may try, by sacred magic spells, to dispossess my love 
of a sound mind. Only charms are here wanting. My charms, 
bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. Charms 
can even draw down the moon from heaven ; by charms 
Circe 14 transformed the companions of Ulysses : the cold snake 
is in the meads by incantation burst. My charms, bring 
Daphnis from the town, bring him home. First, these 
three threads, with threefold colours varied, I round thee 
twine ; and thrice lead thy image round these altars. The 
gods delight in the uneven number. My charms, bring 
Daphnis from the town, bring him home. Bind, Amaryllis, 
three colours in three knots ; bind them. Amaryllis, now ; 
and say, I bind the chains of Venus. My charms, bring 
Daphnis from the town, bring him home. As this clay 
hardens, and as this wax dissolves with one and the same fire ; 
so may Daphnis by my love. Sprinkle the salt cake, and 
burn the crackling laurels in bitumen. Me cruel Daphnis 
burns ; I on Daphnis burn this laurel. My charms, bring 
Daphnis from the town, bring him home. May such love 

12 Arion, a famous lyric poet and musician of the isle of Lesbos. On 
his return to Corinth from Italy, the mariners'formed a plot to murder him 
for his riches, when he threw himself into the sea, and was carried on the 
back of a dolphin to Taenarus in the Morea. 

13 i. e. frankincense of the best sort. 

14 Circe, a daughter of Sol and Perseis, celebrated for her knowledge 
of magic and poisonous herbs. She changed the companions of Ulysses 
into swine ; but afterwards, at his solicitation, restored them to their for- 
mer state. 



'^6 BUCOLICS. lcl. viii. 85—109. ix. 1. 

[seize] Daphnis as when a heifer, tired with ranging after the 
bull through lawns and lofty groves, distracted, lies down on 
the green sedge by a rivulet, nor is mindful to withdraw from 
the late hour of night : let such love seize Daphnis ; nor let 
his cure be my concern. My charms, bring Daphnis from the 
town, bring him home. These garments the faithless one left 
with me some time ago, the dear pledges of himself; which 
to thee, O earth, on the very entrance, I now commit : these 
pledges owe me Daphnis. My charms, bring Daphnis from 
the town, bring him home. These herbs, and these baneful 
plants, in Pontus 15 gathered, Moeris himself gave me : in Pon- 
tus numerous they grow. By these have I seen Moeris trans- 
form himself into a wolf, and skulk into the woods, often from 
the deep graves call forth the ghosts, and transfer the spring- 
ing harvests to another ground. My charms, bring Daphnis 
from the town, bring him home. Bring forth the ashes, 
Amaryllis ; throw them into a flowing brook, 16 and over thy 
head ; look not back. Daphnis with these I will assail : 
nought he regards the gods, nought my charms. My charms, 
bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. See the very 
ashes have spontaneously seized the altars with quivering 
flames, while I delay to remove them may it be a happy omen. 
'Tis certainly something or other ; and Hylax 17 in the entrance 
barks. Can I believe ? or do those in love form to them- 
selves fantastic dreams ? Cease ; for Daphnis comes from the 
town ; now cease, my charms. 

ECLOGUE IX. 

Virgil, having recovered his patrimony through the favour of Augustus, 
devotes this pastoral to complain against Arius the centurion, who had 
possession of his lands, and laid a plan for his assassination. 

Ltcidas, Mceris. 
L. Whither, Moeris, do thy feet [lead] l thee ? are you for 
the town, whither the way leads ? 

15 Pontus, a country of Asia Minor, bordering on the Euxine : it was 
the kingdom of Mithridates the Great. 

16 Rivoque fluenti, the same as in rivum fmentem, of which construc- 
tion many examples occur in Virgil. See J&n. i. 293 ; ii. 250 ; v. 451 • 
vi. 191 ; viii. 591 ; ix. 664 ; xii. 263. 

17 Hylax, the name of a dog. 

1 Supply " ducunt " from the following " ducit." B. 



ecl. ix. 2-32. BUCOLICS. 27 

M. Ah, Lycidas, we have lived to see the day when an 
alien possessor of my little farm (what we never apprehend- 
ed) may say : These are mine ; old tenants, begone. Now 
vanquished and disconsolate, since fortune confounds all 
things, to him I convey these kids, of which I wish him little 
good. 

L. Surely, I heard that your Menalcas had saved by his 
verse all that ground where the hills begin to decline, and by 
an easy declension to sink down their ridges as far as the 
stream and now broken tops of the old beech. 

M. Thou heardst it, Lycidas, and it was reported; 2 but 
our verse just as much avails amid martial arms, as they say 
the Chaonian 3 pigeons do, when the eagle comes upon them. 
But had not the ill-boding raven, from a hollow holm-oak, 
warned me by any means to cut short the rising dispute, 
neither your Moeris here, nor Menalcas himself, had been 
alive. 

L. Alas, is any one capable of so great wickedness ? Alas, 
Menalcas, the charms of thy poetry were almost snatched from 
us with thyself ! Who [then] had sung the nymphs ? who 
with flowering herbs had strewn the ground, or covered with 
verdant shade the springs ? or who [had sung] those songs 
which lately I secretly stole from you, when you used to re- 
sort to our darling Amaryllis ? " Feed, Tityrus, my goats till 
I return, short is the way ; and when they are fed, drive 
them, Tityrus, to watering ; and while you are so doing, be- 
ware of meeting the he-goat : he butts with the horn." 

M. Nay, rather these, which to Varus, and yet unfinished, 
he sung : " Varus, the tuneful swans shall raise thy name- 
aloft to the stars, if Mantua remain but in our possession ; 
Mantua, alas, too near unfortunate Cremona!" 4 

L. If thou retainest any, begin ; so may thy swarms avoid 
Cyrnean yews: 5 so may thy heifers, fed with cytisus, dis- 

2 I, however, prefer putting a note of interrogation after " audieras," 
with Wagner. B. 

3 Chaonian pigeons. Chaonia was a mountainous part of Epirus, in 
which was the sacred grove of Dodona, where pigeons were said to deli- 
ver oracles. 

4 Cremona, a city of Italy on the northern bank of the Po. Its lands 
were divided among the veteran soldiers of Augustus. 

5 Cyrnean yews. Cyrnus, now Corsica, an island in the Mediterra- 
nean, near the coast of Italy. The honey produced here had a bittes 



28 BUCOLICS. ecl. ix. 32—59 

tend their dugs. The Muses have also made me a poet : I 
too have my verses ; and the shepherds call me bard : but to 
them I give no credit : for as yet methinks I sing nothing 
worthy of a Varus or a Cinna, 6 but only gabble like 7 a goose 
among sonorous swans. 

M. That very thing, Lycidas, is what I am about ; and now 
con it over in silence with myself, if I can recollect it : nor is 
it a vulgar song. " Come hither, Galatea : for what pleasure 
have you among the waves ? Here is blooming spring ; here, 
about the rivers, earth pours forth her various flowers ; here 
the white poplar overhangs the grotto, and the limber vines 
weave shady bowers. Come hither : leave the mad billows to 
buffet the shores." 

L. [But] what were those which I heard you singing in a 
clear night alone ? I remember the air, if I could recollect the 
words. 

M. Daphnis, why gaze you on the risings of the signs of 
ancient date ? Lo, Dionasan Caesar's 8 star hath entered on its 
course ; the star by which the fields were to rejoice with corn, 
and by which the grapes on sunny hills were to take their hue. 
Daphnis, plant thy pear-trees. Posterity shall pluck the fruit 
of thy plantations. Age bears away all things, even the mind 
itself. Often, I remember, when a boy, I spent long summer- 
days in song. Now all these songs I have forgotten ; now the 
voice itself has left Moeris ; the wolves have seen Moeris first. 9 
But these Menalcas himself will often recite to you. 

L. By framing excuses thou puttest off for a long time my 
fond desire. And now the whole main for thee lies smooth 
and still ; and mark how every whispering breeze of wind hath 
died away. Besides, half of our journey still remains: for 

taste, in consequence of the bees feeding on the yew trees, with which 
the island abounded. 

6 Cinna, a grandson of Pompey, the intimate friend of Augustus, and 
patron of Virgil. 

7 The poet puns upon the name of Anser, a contemporary poet. The 
saying seems proverbial; as in Symmachus, Ep. i. 1, " Licet inter olores 
canoros anserem strepere." B. 

9 Dionaei Csesaris. Caesar of the Julian family, which sprung from 
/Eneas the son of Venus, whom Mythology makes the daughter of Jupiter 
and Dione. 

Lupi Moerim videre priores. Alluding to a superstitious notion, that, i' 
a wolf saw a man before it was seen by him, it made him lose his voice 



ecl. ix. 60-67. x. 1—12. BUCOLICS. 29 

Bianor's 10 tomb begins to appear. Here, where the swains are 
stripping off the thick leaves, here, Moeris, let us sing. Here 
lay down your kids ; yet we shall reach the town. Or if we 
are afraid that the night may gather rain before [we arrive], 
yet we may still go on singing ; the way will be less tedious. 
That we may go on singing, I will ease you of this burden. 

M. Shepherd, urge me no more ; and let us mind the busi- 
ness now in hand. We shall sing those tunes to more advan- 
tage when [Menalcas] himself arrives. 

ECLOGUE X. 

Gallus, to whom this Eclogue is inscribed, was the patron of Virgil, a soldier 
and a poet. He was greatly enamoured of Cytheris, whom he calls Ly- 
coris, celebrated for her beauty and intrigues ; but she forsook him for 
Mark Antony, by whom she was in turn abandoned for Cleopatra. 

Gallus. 

Grant unto me, O Arethusa, 1 this last essay. A few 
verses, but such as Lycoris herself may read, I must sing to 
my Gallus. Who can deny a verse to Gallus? So, when 
thou glidest beneath the Sicilian wave, may the salt Doris 2 
not intermingle her streams [with thine]. Begin : let us sing 
the anxious loves of Gallus, while the flat-nosed goats browse 
the tender shrubs. We sing not to the deaf ; the woods re- 
ply to all. What groves, ye virgin Naiads, or what lawns 
detained you, while Gallus pined 3 with ill-requited love? for 
neither any of the tops of Parnassus, nor those of Pindus, 4 
nor Aonian Aganippe, did retard you. The very laurels, the 
very tamarisks bemoaned him: even pine-topped Maenalus 
[bemoaned] him as he lay beneath a lonely rock, and over 

10 "The same as Ocnus, of whom Virgil says in the tenth Eclogue, Fa- 
tidiccB Ma?itus, et Thusci films Amnis. He was the founder o£ Mantua." 
Servius. B. 

1 Arethusa, the nymph who presided over the fountain of the same 
name in Sicily. 

2 Doris, a sea nymph, the mother of the Nereids ; here used to express 
the sea itself. Naiads, nymphs, — goddesses who presided over rivers 
and fountains. 

* Observe that " periret " is used to express the traiceTo, i. e. " wasted 
away," ofTheocr. i. 66. B. 

4 Pindus, a mountain between Thessaly and Epirus, sacred to Apollo 
and the Muses. Aonian Aganippe, a celebrated fountain of Bceotia, o/ 
vhich Aonia was a district. 



30 BUCOLICS. ecl. x. 13-47 

him tlie stones of cold Lycseus 5 wept. His sheep too stand 
around him, nor are they ashamed of us ; nor, divine poet, be 
thou ashamed of thy flock ; even fair Adonis 6 tended sheep 
by the streams. The shepherd too came up ; the slow-paced 
herdsmen came ; Menalcas came wet from winter-mast. All 
question whence this thy love? Apollo came: Gallus, he 
says, why ravest thou thy care ? 7 Lycoris is following another 
through snows and horrid camps.. Silvanus 8 too came up 
with rural honours on his head, waving the flowering fennels 
and big lilies. Pan, the god of Arcadia, came; whom we 
ourselves beheld stained with the elder's purple berries and 
vermilion. What bounds, he says, will you set [to mourning] ? 
Love regards not such matters. Nor cruel love with tears, 
nor grassy meads with streams, nor bees with cytisus, nor 
goats with leaves, are satisfied. But he, overwhelmed witL 
grief, said, Yet 9 you, Arcadians, shall sing these my woes on 
your mountains ; ye Arcadians, alone skilled in song. Oh how 
softly then may my bones rest, if your pipe in future times 
shall sing my loves ! And would to heaven I had been one 
of you, and either keeper of your flock, or vintager of the 
ripe grape ! Sure whether Phyllis or Amyntas, or whoever 
else, had been my love, (what though Amyntas be swarthy ? 
the violet is black, and hyacinths are black,) they would have 
reposed with me among the willows under the limber vine ; 
Phyllis had gathered garlands for me, Amyntas would have 
sung. Here are cool fountains ; here, Lycoris, soft meads, 
here a grove : here with thee I could consume my whole life 
away. Now frantic love detains me in the service of rigid 
Mars, in the midst of darts, and adverse foes. Thou, far from 
thy native land, (let me not believe it,) beholdest nothing 
but Alpine snows, 10 and the colds of the Rhine, ah, hard- 

5 Lycaeus, a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Jupiter, and also to Pan. 

6 Adonis, a youth, the favourite of Venus : having lost his life by the 
bite of a wild boar, he was changed into the flower Anemone. 

7 ^Esch. Choeph. 233, <b cpiXarov fikXrjfjLa (i. e. "cura") dujfiaaiv 7ra- 
Tpog. B. 

6 Silvanus, a rural deity among the Romans, who presided over woods. 

9 But Nonius Marcell. i. s. v. triste est mcestum, connects " tamen " 
with "ille," which I should almost prefer, the sense being, "But ho 
(despite all that even Pan could say) yet replied," &c. B. 

10 Alpine snows. The Alps are a chain of mountains, the highest iu 
Europe, separating Italy from France, Switzerland, and Austria. The 



ecl. x. 48— 77. BUCOLICS. 31 

hearted one ! alone, without me. Ah, may neither these colds 
hurt thee ! ah, may not the sharp ice wound thy tender feet ! 
I will go, and warble on the Sicilian shepherd's reed those 
songs which are by me composed in Chalcidian strain. 11 I 
am resolved, rather to endure [my passion] in the woods, 
among the dens of wild beasts, and to inscribe my loves upon 
the tender trees : as they grow up, so you, my loves, will grow. 
Meanwhile, in company with the nymphs, over Msenalus will 
I range, or hunt the fierce boars. No colds shall hinder me 
from traversing with my hounds the Parthenian lawns 12 around. 
Now over rocks and resounding groves methinks I roam : 
pleased I am to shoot Cydonian shafts from the Parthian bow : 
[Fool that I am !] as if these were a cure for the rage of love ; 
or as if that god could learn to be softened by human woes. 
Now, neither the nymphs of the groves, nor songs themselves, 
charm me any more : even ye woods, once more farewell. No 
suffering can change him, though amidst frosts we drink of 
Hebrus, 13 and undergo the Sithonian snows 41 of rainy winter ; 
or even if we should tend our flocks in Ethiopia, 15 beneath the 
sign of Cancer, when the dying rind withers on the stately elm. 
Love conquers all ; 16 and let us yield to love. These strains, 
ye divine Muses, it shall suffice your poet to have sung, while 
he sat and wove his little basket of slender osiers : these you 
will make acceptable, to Gallus ; to Gallus, for whom my love 
grows as much every hour, as the green alder shoots up in the 
infancy of spring. Let us arise : the shade is wont to prove 
noxious to singers ; the juniper's shade now grows noxious ; 
the shades are hurtful even to the corn. Go home, the even- 
ing star arises, my full-fed goats, go home. 

Rhine, a celebrated river which rises in the Alps, and, after a course of 
600 miles, discharges itself into the German Ocean. 

11 Chalcidian strain, that is, in the elegiac strain of Euphorion, a Gree>' 
poet of Chalcis in Euboea. 

12 Parthenian lawns. Parthenius was a mountain of Arcadia, foi 
which it is here used ; as Cydonian shafts is used for Cretan darts, — Cy- 
don being a city of Crete. 

13 The cold of the Hebrus in Thrace was celebrated, as we find from 
Philippus in Anthol. p. 47, "E/3oov Oprj'iKiov Kpv/ji(f TreTredrjfikvov vdojp. B. 

14 Sithonian snows, from Sithonia, a part of Thrace. 

15 Ethiopia, an extensive country of Africa: by the ancients, this name 
was applied to modern Abyssinia, and the southern regions of Africa. 

16 Heyne finds fault with the abruptness of this passage, but An thou 
well remarks, that ''this line is meant to express a return to a soundci 
mind. 5 * B. 



VIRGIL'S GEORGICS. 



BOOK I. 

Vbh admirable Poem was undertaken at the particular request of that great 
patron of poetry, Maecenas, to whom it is dedicated, and has justly been 
esteemed the most perfect and finished of Virgil's works. Of the Four 
Books of which it consists, the First treats of ploughing and preparing the 
ground ; the Second, of sowing and planting ; the Third, of the manage* 
ment of cattle, &c. ; and the Fourth gives an account of bees, and of the 
manner of keeping them among the Romans. 

What makes the harvests joyous ; under what sign, Maecenas, 
it is proper to turn the earth and join the vines to elms ; what 
is the care for kine, the nurture for breeding sheep ; l and 
how much experience for managing the frugal bees ; hence 
will I begin to sing. Ye brightest lights 2 of the world, that 
lead the year gliding along the sky ; Bacchus and fostering 
Ceres, if by your gift mortals exchanged the Chaonian acorn 
for fattening ears of corn, and mingled draughts of Achelous 3 
with the invented juice of the grape ; and ye Fauns propitious 
to swains, ye Fauns and Virgin Dryads, advance your foot in 
tune : your bounteous gifts I sing. And thou, O Neptune, to 
whom the earth, struck with thy mighty trident, first poured 
forth the neighing steed ; and thou, tenant of the groves, for 
whom three hundred snow-white bullocks crop Csea's 4 fertile 

1 Pecori. Pecus here, as opposed to boves, signifies the lesser cattle, 
as sheep and goats, but especially sheep ; as the word, I think, always 
signifies in Virgil when it stands by itself. See Eel. i. 75; iii. 1, 20, 34; 
y. 87. Georg. ii. 371. 

2 Vos, 6. clarissima mundi, &c. Varro, in his seventh book of Agricul- 
ture, invocates the sun and moon, then Bacchus and Ceres, as Virgil 
does here : which sufficiently confutes those who take the words, vos, 6 
clarissima lumina, to be meant of Bacchus and Ceres. 

3 Achelous, (Aspro Potamo,) a river of Epirus in Greece, r said by some 
to have been the first river that sprung from the earth after the deluge ; 
hence it was frequently put by the ancients, as it is here, for water. 
Davidson. Servius observes, " Acheloum generaliter, propter antiquita- 
tetn fluminis, omnem aquam veteres vocabant." B. 

4 Caea, (Zea,) an island in the Archipelago, one of the Cyclades. 



b. l 1S-4S, GEORGICS. 33 

thickets : thou too, Pan, guardian of the sheep, Tegeaean 5 
god, if thy own Maenalus be thy care, draw nigh propitious, 
leaving thy native grove, and the dells of Lycaeus : and thou 
Minerva, inventress of the olive ; and thou, O boy, teacher of 
the crooked plough ; and thou, Sylvanus, bearing a tender 
cypress plucked up by the root : both gods and goddesses all, 
whose province it is to guard the fields ; both ye who nourish 
the infant fruits from no seed, and ye who on the sown fruits 
send down the abundant shower from heaven. 

And thou too, Caesar, whom it is yet uncertain what 
councils of the gods are soon to have ; whether thou wilt 
vouchsafe to visit cities, and [undertake] the care of countries, 
and the widely extended globe receive thee, giver of the 
fruits, and ruler of the seasons, binding thy temples with thy 
mother's myrtle : or whether thou comest, god of the unmea- 
sured ocean, and mariners worship thy divinity alone ; 
whether remotest Thule 6 is to be subject to thee, and Tethys 7 
to purchase thee for her son-in-law with all her waves ; or 
whether thou wilt join thyself to the slow months, a new con- 
stellation, where space lies open between Erigone and the 
[Scorpion's] pursuing claws: the fiery Scorpion himself al- 
ready contracts his arms and leaves for thee more than an 
equal proportion of the sky. Whatever thou wilt be, (for let 
not Tartarus 8 expect thee for its king, nor let such dire lust of 
sway once be thine ; though Greece admires her Elysian fields, 
and Proserpine, 9 redemanded, is not inclined to follow her 
mother,) grant me an easy course, and favour my adventurous 
enterprise ; and pitying with me the swains who are strangers 
to their way, commence [the god], and accustom thyself even 
now to be invoked by prayers. « 

In early spring, when melted snows glide down from the 

5 Tegesean god. Pan is so called, from Tegea, a town of Arcadia, in 
Greece, which was sacred to him. 

6 Thule, an island in the most northern parts of the German Ocean, to 
which the ancients gave the epithet of Ultima. Some suppose that it is 
the island of Iceland, or part of Greenland, while others imagine it to be 
the Shetland Isles. 

7 Tethys, the chief of the sea-deities, was the wife of Oceanus. The 
v ord is often used by the poets to express the sea. 

8 Tartarus, the infernal regions, where, according to the ancients, the 
most impious and guilty among mankind were punished. 

9 Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, and wife of Pluto, who stole hei 
away as she was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna in Sicil v. 

D 



34 GEORGICS. b. i. 44—67. 

hoary bills, and the crumbling glebe unbinds itself by the 
zephyr ; then let my steer begin to groan under the deep- 
pressed plough, and the share worn by the furrow [begin] to 
glitter. That field at last answers the wishes of the covetous 
farmer, which twice hath felt the sun, twice the cold, 10 har- 
vests immense are wont to burst his barns. 
* But, before we cleave an unknown plain with the plough- 
share, let it be our care previously to learn the winds, and 
various character of the climate, the ways of culture practised 
by our forefathers, and the tillage and habits of the soil ; 
what each country is apt to produce, and what to refuse. 
Here grain, there grapes, more happily grow ; nurseries of 
trees elsewhere, and herbs spontaneous bloom. Do not you 
see, how Tmolus u sends saffron odours, India ivory, the soft 
Sabseans their frankincense ? But the naked 12 Chalybes [send] 
steel, Pontus strong-scented castor, Epirus 13 the prime of the 
Olympic mares. These laws and eternal conditions nature 
from the beginning imposed on certain places : what time 
Deucalion first cast stones into the unpeopled world, whence 
men, a hardy race, sprang up. Come then, let your sturdy 
steers forthwith turn up a soil that is rich for the first month 
of the year ; and let the dusty summer bake the scattered clods 
with mature suns. But, if the land be not fertile, it will be 

10 Anthon observes, " The usual custom of the Roman farmers was to 
plough the land three times, when it fell under the denomination of hard 
land. The first ploughing was in the spring, the second in the summer, 
the third in autumn (tertiabatur, Colum. ii. 4). In this way the ground 
was exposed twice to the heat of the sun, and once to the frost. If, how- 
ever, the soil was unusually hard and stubborn, a fourth ploughing took 
place at the end of autumn or beginning of winter; and it is to such a 
process that the poet here alludes, the land having thus, in the course of 
its four upturnings with the plough, twice felt the sun and twice the cold." 

11 Tmolus, a mountain of Lydia, in Asia Minor, abounding in vines, 
saffron, &c. Sabaeans, the inhabitants of Saba, a town of Arabia, famous 
for frankincense, myrrh, and aromatic plants. Chalybes, a people of 
Pontus, in Asia Minor ; their country abounded in iron mines. 

12 If "nudi" be correct, Virgil must speak of the Chalys only as 
lightly clad, (leviter vestiti,) as in his direction to husbandmen " to 
plough and sow naked." But although this would be a very proper 
way of speaking among people acquainted with this limitation of mean- 
ing, yet it seems scarcely an apt epithet for a barbarian tribe, dwelling in 
a cold region. Some years since, I proposed to read " duri." See the 
supplement to my notes on Apul. de Deo Socr. B. 

11 Epirus, (Albania,) a country of Greece, famous for its fine breed of 
horses. 



b. i. 68-06. GEORGICS. oO 

enough to raise it up^vith a light furrow, even towards the 
rising of Arcturus : M in the former case, lest weeds obstruct 
the joyous corn ; in the latter, lest the scanty moisture for- 
sake the barren sandy soil. 

You will likewise suffer your lands after reaping to lie fal- 
low every other year, and the exhausted field to harden by 
repose. Or, changing the season, you will sow there yellow 
wheat, whence before you have taken up the joyful pulse, 
with rustling pods, or the vetch's slender offspring and the 
bitter lupine's brittle stalks, and rustling grove. For a crop 
of flax burns 15 the land: as burn the oats and poppies im- 
pregnated with Lethean sleep. 16 But yet your labour will be 
easy [even though you should sow these kinds of grain] every 
other year, provided only you be not backward to saturate 
the parched soil with rich dung, or to scatter sordid ashes 
upon the exhausted lands : thus, too, your land will rest by 
changing the grain. Nor, in the mean time, will there be 
ungratefulness. 

Often, too, it has been of use to set fire to barren lands, and 
burn the light stubble in crackling flames : whether the land 
thence receives secret strength and rich nourishment from a 
field left fallow ; or whether every vicious quality is exhaled 
by the fire and the superfluous moisture sweats off; or whe- 
ther the heat opens more passages, and secret pores, through 
which the sap may come to the tender blades ; or whether it 
hardens more, and binds the gaping veins ; that the small 
showers, or keen influence of the violent sun, or penetrating 
cold of Boreas, may not parch it up. 

He, too, greatly benefits the land, who breaks the sluggish 
clods with harrows, and drags osier hurdles over them, (nor 
does yellow Ceres view him from high Olympus, 17 to no 

14 Arcturus, a star near the tail of Ursa Major, whose rising and set- 
ting was supposed to portend great tempests. In the time of Virgil, it 
rose about the middle of September. 

15 i. e. exhausts. Virgil does not forbid the sowing of flax and poppies, 
but explains that, from their exhausting nature, they are bad crops in 
rotation after wheat. So Anthon. B . 

16 Lethsean sleep. Lethe was one of the rivers of hell, whose waters 
had the power of causing forgetfulness. 

17 Olympus, a lofty mountain on the confines of Thessaly and Mace- 
donia, separated from Ossa by the vale of Tempe. The ancients sup- 
posed that it touched the heavens with its top, and on that account the 
poets made it the residence of the gods. 



36 GEOftGICS. B. i. 97—130. 

purpose,) and he also who, after the plain has been torn, again 
breaks through the land ; that raises up its ridges, turning 
the plough across, 18 and gives it, frequent exercise and rules 
his lands imperiously. 

Pray, ye swains, for moist summers and serene winters. 
In winter's dust most joyful is the corn, joyful is the field. 
On no culture does Mysia 19 so much pride herself, and [hence] 
even G-argarus admires his own harvest. 

What shall I say of him, who, immediately after sowing 
the seed, presses on the lands, and levels the heaps of barren 
sand ; then on the sown corn drives the stream and ductile 
rills ? and when the field is scorched with raging heat, the 
herbs all dying, lo ! from the brow of a hilly tract he decoys 
the torrent; which falling down the smooth rocks, awakes 
the hoarse murmur, and with gurgling streams allays the 
thirsty lands. 

What of him who, lest the stalk with over-loaded ears bend 
to the ground, feeds down the luxuriance of the crop in the 
tender blade, when first the springing corn equals the fur- 
rows ; and who drains from soaking sand the collected mois- 
ture of the marsh, chiefly when, in the changeable months, the 
swelling river overflows, and overspreads all around with slimy 
mud, whence the hollow dykes sweat with tepid vapour ? 

After all, (when the labours of men and oxen have tried 
these expedients in cultivating the ground,) the voracious 
goose, the Strymonian 20 cranes, and succory with its bitter 
roots, and even the shades are in some degree injurious. The 
Sire himself willed the ways of tillage not to be easy, and first 
aroused the fields by art, whetting the skill of mortals with 
care ; nor suffered he his reign to lie inactive in heavy sloth. 
Before Jove, no husbandmen subdued the fields ; nor was it 
even lawful to mark out, or by limits divide the ground. 
They made all things common gain, and earth of herself pro- 
duced every thing freely without any one asking. He infused 
the noxious poison into the horrid serpent, commanded the 
wolves to prowl, and the sea to be stirred ; and he shook the 

18 A description of " cross-ploughing." B. 

19 Mysia, a country of Asia Minor, bordering on Troas. Gargarus. a 
mountain, or rather a part of Mount Ida, in Troas. 

20 Strymonian cranes. Strymon, a river of Macedonia, the ancient 
boundary between that eoantry and Thrace. 



B. I. 131—164. GEORGICS. 37 

honey from the leaves, removed fire, and restrained the wine 
that ran commonly in rivulets ; that experience, by dint of 
thought, might gradually hammer out the various arts, in 
furrows seek the blade of corn, and from the veins of flint 
strike out the hidden fire. Then first the rivers felt the ex- 
cavated alders ; then the seamen gave the stars their numbers 
and their names, the Pleiades, 21 Hyades, and the bright 
bear of Lycaon. Then were invented [the arts of] catching 
wild beasts in toils, deceiving with birdlime, and encom- 
passing the spacious lawns with hounds. And now one seek- 
ing the depths, lashes the broad river with his casting-net ; 
and on the sea another drags his humid lines along. Then 
[arose] the rigid force of steel, and the flat blade of the grating 
saw (for the first mortals cleft the splitting wood with wedges) ; 
then various arts ensued. Incessant labour and want, in hard- 
ships pressing, surmounted every obstacle. Ceres first taught 
mortals with steel to turn the ground : when now the acorns 
and arbutes of the sacred wood failed, and Dodona 22 refused 
sustenance. Soon too was distress inflicted on the corn ; when 
noxious mildew eat the stalks, and the lazy thistle shot up its 
horrid spikes in the field. The crops of corn die ; a prickly 
wood succeeds, burs and caltrops, and, amidst the shining 
fields, unhappy darnel and barren wild oats bear sway. But 
unless you both vex the ground by continual harrowings, fright 
away the birds with a noise, and with the pruning-knife re- 
strain the shades of the shaded field, and by prayers call 
down the showers ; alas, [while thy labour proves] in vain, 
thou wilt view another's ample store, and in the woods solace 
thy hunger by shaking [acorns] from the oak. 

We must also describe what are the instruments used by the 
hardy swains ; without which the crops could neither be sown 
nor spring. First, the share, and the heavy timber of the curved 
plough, and the slow-rolling wains of the Eleusinian mother, 
Ceres, and sledges and drags, and harrows of unwieldy weight ; 

21 Pleiades, a name given to the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, 
made a constellation in the heavens. Hyades, the five daughters of Atlas, 
who were also changed into stars, and placed in the constellation Taurus. 
Bear of Lycaon. Calisto, the daughter of Lycaon, was changed by Juno 
into a bear, but Jupiter made her the constellation Ursa Major. 

22 Dodona, an ancient city of Epirus, in Greece, where was a sacred 
grove, with a celebrated oracle and temple of Jupiter. 



38 GEORGICS. b. i. 165—194 

besides the mean osier furniture of Celeus, 23 arbute hurdles, 
and the mystic fan of Bacchus ; all which, with mindful care, 
you will provide long before-hand, if glory of a blissful coun- 
try duly awaits thee. In the first place, 24 in the woods an elm 
bent with vast force is subdued into the plough tail, and re- 
ceives the form of the crooked plough. To this, at the lower 
end, are fitted a beam extended to eight feet, two earth-boards, 
and share-beams with a double back. The light linden also 
is felled before-hand for the yoke, and the tall beech, and the 
plough-staff, to turn the bottom of the carriage behind ; and 
the smoke seasons 25 the timber hung up in the chimneys. 

I can recite to you many precepts of the ancients, unless 
you decline them, and think it not worth while to learn these 
trifling cares. The threshing-floor chiefly must be levelled 
with the huge roller, and wrought with the hand, and con- 
solidated with binding chalk, that weeds may not spring up, 
and that overpowered with drought it may not chap. Then 
various pests baffle us ; often the diminutive mouse has built 
its cell, and made its granaries ; or the moles, deprived of 
sight, have dug their lodges under ground ; and in the cavities 
has the toad been found, and vermin which the earth produces 
in abundance ; the weevil plunders vast heaps of corn, and 
the ant, fearful of helpless old age. 

Observe also, when the almond 26 shall clothe itself abund- 
antly with blossom in the woods, and bend its fragrant 
boughs : if the rising fruit abound, in like quantity the corn 
will follow, and a great threshing with great heat will ensue. 
But, if the shady boughs abound with luxuriance of leaves, in 
vain the floor shall bruise the stalks, fertile only in chaff. 

I have indeed seen many sowers artificially prepare their 
seeds, and steep them first in saltpetre and black lees of oil, 

23 Celeus, a king of Eleusis, was the father of Triptolemus, whom 
Ceres instructed in husbandry. 

24 The order is, u ulmus flexa in silvis magna vi domatur in burim, et 
accipit formam curvi aratri." Anthon. 

25 Literally, " explores," " searches," i. e. to see if there be any 
chinks. B. 

26 The term mix is employed by the Roman writers in an extended 
sense, to denote the almond, the walnut, the hazel-nut tree, &c. Most 
commonly, however, an epithet is added, to make the meaning more de- 
5nite ; thus, mixjuglans, " the walnut; " nux amygdala, " the almond ;" 
xux avellana, " the hazel-nut or filbert," &c. Anthon. 



• b. i. 195—223. GEORGICS. 39 

that the produce might be larger in the fallacious pods. And 
though, being hastened, they were soaked over a slow fire, 
selected long, and proved with much labour, yet have I seen 
them degenerate, unless human industry with the hand culled 
out the largest every year. Thus all things, by destiny, hasten 
to decay, 27 and gliding away, insensibly are driven backward ; 
not otherwise than he who rows his skiff with much ado against 
the stream, if by chance he slackens his arms, and the tide 
hurries him headlong down the river. 

Further, the stars of Arcturus, and the days of the Kids, 
and the shining Dragon, must be as much observed by us, as 
by those who, homeward borne across the main, attempt the 
[Euxine] Sea, 2S and the straits of oyster-breeding Abydos. 

When Libra makes the hours of day and night equal, and 
now divides the globe in the middle between light and shades, 
work your steers, ye swains, sow barley in the fields, till toward 
the last shower of the inclement winter solstice. Then too is 
the time to hide in the ground a crop of flax, and the poppy 
of Ceres, and high time to ply your harrows ; while the ground 
yet dry, you may, while the clouds are yet suspendsd. 

In the spring is the sowing of beans : then thee too, O 
Medic plant ! 30 the rotten furrows receive, and millet comes, 
an annual care, when the bright Bull with gilded horns opens 
the year, and the Dog sets, giving way to the backward star. 
But if you labour the ground for a wheat-harvest and sturdy 
grain, and are bent on bearded ears alone ; let the Pleiades 
in the morning be set, and let the Gnosian star 31 of [Ariadne's] 
blazing Crown depart, before you commit to the furrows the 

27 The infinitive is used absolutely to signify what is wont to hap- 
pen. B. 

28 The Euxine (or Black) Sea is situated between Europe and Asia, 
and communicates with the Mediterranean by the Sea of Marmora and 
the Dardanelles. 

29 Abydos, a city of Asia Minor, on the Hellespont, (Dardanelles,) 
opposite to Sestos, in Thrace ; famous for the bridge of beats which 
Xerxes made there across the Hellespont, when he invaded Greece ; and 
for the loves of Hero and Leander. 

30 Medic plant, a species of trefoil, so called, because introduced from 
Media into Greece. 

31 Gnosian star, &c, Ariadne's crown, consisting of seven stars, so 
called from Gnosus, a city of Crete, where Minos, the father of Ariadne, 
reigned. Maia, one of the Pleiades. Boutes, a constellation near the 
Ursa Major, or Great Bear- 



40 GEORGICS. b. i. 224—256 

seed designed, and before you hasten to trust to the unwilling 
earth the hopes of the year. Many have begun before the 
setting of Maia ; but the expected crop hath mocked them 
with empty ears. But if you are to sow vetches, and cheap 
kidney beans, nor despise the care of the Egyptian lentil ; set- 
ting Bootes will afford thee signs not obscure. Begin, and 
extend thy sowing to the middle of the frosts. 

For this purpose, the golden sun, through the twelve con- 
stellations of the world, rules the globe measured out into 
certain portions. Five zones embrace the heavens ; whereof 
one is ever glowing with the bright sun, and scorched for ever 
by his fire ; round which two furthest ones to the right and 
left are extended, stiff with cerulean ice and horrid showers. 
Between these and the middle zones, two by the bounty of the 
gods are given to weak mortals ; and a path is cut through both, 
where the series of the signs might revolve obliquely. As 
the world rises high towards Scythia and Riphasan 32 hills ; so 
sloping downward it is depressed towards the south winds of 
Libya. 33 The one pole to us is always elevated ; but the other, 
under our feet, is seen by gloomy Styx 34 and the ghosts below. 35 
Here, after the manner of a river, the huge Dragon glides 
away with tortuous windings, around and through between the 
Bears ; the Bears that fear to be dipped in the ocean. There, 
as they report, either dead night for ever reigns in silence, 
and, outspread, wraps all things up in darkness ; or else Au- 
rora 36 returns thither from us, and brings them back the day : 
and when the rising sun first breathes on us with panting 
steeds, there ruddy Vesper lights up his late illuminations. 

Hence we are able to foreknow the seasons, in the dubious 
sky, hence the days of harvest, and the time of sowing ; and 
when it is proper to sweep the faithless sea with oars, when 
to launch the armed fleets, or to fell the pine in the woods in 

32 Ripheean hills, in the north of Scythia, near the rivers Tanais and 
Rha. 

33 Libya, an extensive country of Africa, lying between Egypt and the 
Syrtis Major ; by the ancients it was often applied to Africa in generaL. 

34 Styx, one of the rivers of hell, round which it was said to flow nine 
times. The gods held the waters of the Styx in such veneration, that 
they always swore by them ; an oath which was inviolable. 

35 So "profunda Juno," for Proserpine, in Claudian, de Vap. i. 2. B. 
3 * Aurora, the goddess of the morning. Vesper, the evening star ; often 

used for the evening, as Aurora is for the morning. 



b.i. 257— 282. GEORGICS. 41 

season. Nor in vain do we study the setting? and the risings 
of the signs, and the year equally divided into four different 
seasons. 

If at any time a bleak shower confines the husbandman, 
then is his time to do many things in season, which, as soon 
as the sky is serene, would have to be done with expedition. 37 
The ploughman sharpens the hard edge of the blunted share, 
scoops little boats from trees, or stamps the mark on the 
sheep, or the number on his sacks. Others sharpen stakes 
and two-horned forks, and prepare Amerine [osier] bands 38 
for the limber vine. Now let the pliant basket of bramble f 
twigs be woven ; now parch your grain over the fire, now '• 
grind it with the stone : for even on holy-days, divine and 
human laws permit to perform some works. No religion 
iiath forbidden to clear the channels, to raise a fence before 
the corn, to lay snares for birds, to fire the thorns, and plunge 
in the wholesome river a flock of bleating sheep. Often the 
driver of the sluggish ass loads his ribs with oil, or common 
apples ; and, in his return from the town, brings back an in- 
dented mill-stone, or a mass of black pitch. 

The moon too hath allotted days auspicious to works, some 
in one order, some in another. Shun the fifth : [on this] pale 
Pluto 39 and the Furies were born. Then at an unholy birth 
the earth brought forth Coeus, 40 Iapetus, and savage Typhosus, 
and the brothers who conspired to tear down the skies. For 
thrice did they essay to pile Ossa 41 upon Pelion, and to roll 
woody Olympus upon Ossa : thrice the Sire, with his thun- 

37 So this line appears to be explained by Nonius Marc. i. p. 512, and 
Macrob. Sat. vi. 3. " Maturare" at times is nearly identical with " pro- 
perare." B. 

38 Amerine bands, from Ameria, a city of Umbria, in Italy, which 
abounded in osiers. 

39 Pluto, in ancient mythology, was the son of Saturn and Ops, and 
brother to Jupiter and Neptune ; in the division of his father's empire, 
the kingdom of Hell was allotted to him. 

40 Coeus, Iapetus, &c, famous giants, sons of Ccelus and Terra, who, 
according to the poets, made war against the gods ; but Jupiter at last 
put them to flight with his thunderbolts, and crushed them under Mount 
^Etna, in Sicily. 

41 Ossa, Pelion, &c, celebrated mountains of Thessaly, in Greece, 
which the giants, in their war against the gods, were feigned to have 
heaped on each other, that they might with more facility scale the walls 
of heaven. 



42 GEORGICS. b. i. 283-313. 

tier, overthrew the piled-up mountains. The seventh, next 
to the tenth, is lucky both to plant the vine, and break the 
oxen caught, and to add the woof to the warp : the ninth is 
better for flight, adverse to thefts. 42 Many works too have 
succeeded better in the cool night ; or when morning sprin- 
kles the earth with the rising sun. By night the light stub- 
ble, by night the parched meadows, are better 43 shorn: the 
clammy dews fail not by night. And some by the late fires 
of the winter light, watch all night, and with the sharp steel 
point torches. Meanwhile, his spouse, cheering by song her 
tedious labour, runs over the webs with the shrill shuttle ; or 
over the fire boils down the liquor of the luscious must, and 
skims with leaves the tide of the trembling caldron. 

But reddening Ceres is cut down in noontide heat ; and in 
noontide heat the floor thrashes out the parched grain. Plough 
naked, 44 sow naked : winter is an inactive time for the hind. 
In the cold weather the farmers mostly enjoy the fruit of their 
labour, and, rejoicing with one another, provide mutual enter- 
tainments : the genial winter invites them, and relaxes their 
cares ; as when weather-beaten ships have reached the port, 
and the joyous mariners have planted garlands on the sterns. 
But it then is the time both to strip the mast of oak, and the 
bay-berries, the olive, and the bloody myrtle-berries ; then to 
set springes for cranes, and nets for stags, and to pursue the 
long-eared hares ; and whirling the hempen thongs of the 
Balearian 45 sling, to pierce the does, when the snow lies deep, 
when the rivers hurtle down the ice. 

Why should I speak of the storms 46 and constellations of 
autumn ? and what must be guarded against by swains when 
the day is now shorter, and the summer milder ? or when the 

42 Anthon remarks, " The ninth day would be favourable for the run- 
away, since the moon would then be of sufficient age to give a good light, 
and help him on his way. For this very reason, on the other hand, it 
would be unfavourable for the thief, who prefers darkness/' Voss. ad loc. 

43 I think the harmony of this verse will be increased by transposing, 
thus, " Nocte leves stipulae melius," as it is quoted by Jul. Rufin. Schem. 
Lex. 6. p. 31, ed. Ruhnk. B. 

44 i. e. in thin attire. B. 

45 Balearian sling, from the Baleares ; a name given to the islands of 
Majorca and Minorca, in the Mediterranean, because the inhabitants were 
expert slingers. 

46 Nonius, i. s. v. tempestas, limits the sense of this word to " turbc 
ventorum," I think, scarcely with reason. B. 



b, I. 313—346. GEORGICS. 43 

showery spring pours down, the spiky harvest bristles in the 
fields, and the milky corn swells in the green stalk ? Oft have 
I seen, when the farmer had just brought the reaper into the 
yellow fields, and was binding up the barley with the brittle 
straw, all the battles of the winds engage, which far and wide 
tore up the full-loaded corn from the lowest roots, and tossed 
it up: just so, with blackening whirlwind, a wintry storm 
would drive light straw and flying stubble. Often also an 
immense march of waters gathers in the sky, and clouds, col- 
lected from on high, brew thick an ugly storm of black show- 
ers : the lofty sky pours down, and with storms of rain sweeps 
away the joyful corn, and toils of steers : the ditches are filled, 
and the hollow rivers 47 swell with roaring, and in the steam- 
ing friths the sea boils. The Sire himself, amidst a night of 
clouds, launches the thunders with his flaming right hand : 
with the violence of which mighty earth trembles ; the beasts 
are fled, and through the nations lowly fear hath sunk the 
hearts of men. He with his flaming bolts strikes down or 
Athos, 48 or Rhodope, or high Ceraunia: 49 the south winds 
redouble, and «the shower is more and more condensed ; now 
woods, now shores, moan 'neath the mighty blast. 

This dreading, observe the months and constellations of the 
heavens : which way the cold star of Saturn shapes his course, 
into what circuits Mercury's fiery planet wanders in heaven. 
Above all, venerate the gods ; and renew to great Ceres the 
sacred annual rites, 50 offering up thy sacrifice upon the joyous 
turf, at the expiration of the last days of winter, when the 
spring is serene. Then the lambs are fat, and then the wines 
most mellow ; then slumbers on the hills are sweet, and thick 
the shades. For thee let all the rural youths adore Ceres ; to 
whom, mix thou the honey-comb with milk and gentle wine ; 
and thrice let the auspicious victim go round the recent grain ; 
which let the whole chorus of thy companions accompany in 

47 i. e. the mountain streams. Hesych. QaXaaaa icoiKr], rj x il ^P ia Q' B. 

48 Athos, a lofty mountain of Macedonia, in Greece, on a peninsula : 
it is now called Monte Santo, from the number of monasteries erected 
upon it. Ceraunia, large mountains of Epirus, in Greece, stretching out 
far into the Adriatic. 

49 " Acroceraunia " is more usual. Servius on ^En. iii. B. 

50 The poet here alludes to the Ambarvalia, a festival in honour of 
Ceres, and which was so called because the victim was led around the 
fields (quod victima ambiret arva} before it was sacrificed. Anthon. 



44 GEOKGICS. b. i. 347-383 

jovial mood, and with acclamation invite Ceres into their 
dwellings ; nor let any one put the sickle to the ripe corn, 
till, m honour of Ceres, having his temples bound with 
wreathed oak, he dance in measure uncouth, and sing hymns. 

And that we may learn these things by certain signs, both 
heats and rains, and cold-bringing winds, the Sire himself has 
appointed what the monthly moon should betoken ; under 
what sign the south winds should fall ; from what common 
observations the husbandman should learn to keep his herds 
nearer their stalls. 

Straightway, when winds are rising, the friths of the sea 
with tossings begin to swell, and a dry crashing noise to be 
heard in the high mountains ; or the far-sounding shores to 
be disturbed, and the murmurs of the grove to increase. Now 
hardly the billows refrain themselves from the crooked ships, 
when the cormorants fly swiftly back from the midst of the sea, 
and send their screams to the shore ; and when the sea-coots 
sport on the dry beach ; and the heron forsakes the well- 
known fens, and soars above the lofty cloud. Often too, 
when wind threatens, you will see the stars shoot precipitate 
from the sky, and behind them long trails of flame whiten 
athwart the shades of night ; often the light chaff and fallen 
leaves flutter about ; or feathers swimming on the surface of 
the water frisk together. 

But when it lightens from the quarter of surly Boreas, and 
when the house of Eurus 31 and Zephyrus thunders, all the 
fields are floated with full ditches, and every mariner on the 
sea furls his damp sails. Showers never hurt any unfore- 
warned : either the airy cranes have shunned it in the deep 
valleys as it rose ; or the heifer, looking up to heaven, hath 
snuffed in the air with wide nostrils ; or the chattering swallow 
hath fluttered about the lakes ; and the frogs croaked their old 
complaint in the mud. 52 And often the ant, drilling her nar- 
row path, hath conveyed her eggs from her secret cell ; and 
the mighty bow hath drunk deep ; and an army of ravens, on 
their return from feeding, have beaten the air and made a 
noise, with wings close crowded. Now you may observe the 
various sea-fowls, and those that rummage about the Asian 

51 Eurus and Zephyrus, the east and west winds. 

52 Alluding to the metamorphosis of the Lycian peasants into frogs fir 
ii'jiulting Latona. Ovid, Met. vi 376. Anthon. B. 



B . t 384—409. GEORGICS. 4o 

meads, in Cayster's 53 pleasant lakes, keenly lave the copious 
dews upon their shoulders ; now offer their heads to the work- 
ing tides, now run into the streams, and, sportive, revel vainly 
in their desire of bathing. Then the impudent crow with full 
throat invites the rain, and solitary stalks by herself on the 
dry sand. Nor were even the maids, carding their nightly 
tasks, ignorant of the approaching storm ; when they saw the oil 
sputter on the heated sherd, and foul fungous clots grow thick. 54 
Nor with less ease may you foresee, and by certain signs 
discern, sunshine succeeding rain, and open serene skies. 
For neither are the stars then seen with blunted edge, nor the 
moon to rise as if indebted to her brother's beams ; nor thin 
fleecy 55 clouds to be borne through the sky. Nor do the hal- 
cyons, beloved by Thetis, 56 expand their wings upon the shore 
to the warm sun : the impure swine are not heedful to toss 
about with their snouts the loosened wisps. But the mists 
seek the lower grounds, and rest upon the plain ; and the owl, 
observant of the setting sun from the high house-top, practises 
her evening songs in vain. Nisus in the clear sky appears 
aloft, and Scylla pays penalty for the purple lock. Wher- 
ever she flying cuts the light air with her wings, lo, hostile, 
implacable Nisus, 57 with loud screams pursues her through the 
sky : where Nisus mounts into the sky, she swiftly flying cuts 
the light air with her wings. Then the ravens, with com- 

53 Cayster, a river of Asia Minor, which falls into the iEgean Sea, near 
Ephesus. 

34 This was a popular superstition, as we learn from Schol. Aristoph. 
Vesp. 260. B. 

55 Cf. Lucret. vi. 503, "veluti pendentia vellera lanse." B. 

56 Thetis, one of the sea-deities, daughter of N ere us and Doris and 
mother of Achilles. 

57 Minos having laid siege to Megara, of which Nisus was king, became 
master of the place through the treachery of Scylla, the daughter of the 
latter. Nisus had a purple or golden lock of hair growing on his head, 
and, as long as it remained uncut, so long was his life to last. Scylla, 
having seen Minos, fell in love with him, and resolved to give him the 
victory. She accordingly cut off her father's precious lock as he slept, 
and he immediately died. The town was then taken by the Cretans; hut 
Minos, instead of rewarding the maiden, disgusted with her unnatural 
treachery, tied her by her feet to the stern of his vessel, and thus dragged 
her along till she was drowned. Nisus was changed after death into the 
bird called the sea-eagle^ (aXiasrog,) and Scylla into that named ciriz 
(«*i(Otc) ; and the father continually pursues the daughter, says the legend, 
to punish her for her crime. Anthon. 



46 GEORGICS. b. i. 410—444 

pressed throat, three or four times repeat their clear notes ; 
and often in their nests aloft, affected with I know not what 
unusual charm, they rustle together among the leaves: the 
rains now past, they are glad to revisit their little offspring 
and beloved nests : not, indeed, I am persuaded, as if they had 
a spirit of discernment from the gods, or superior knowledge 
of things by fate ; but when the storm and fluctuating vapours 
of the air have changed their course, and showery Jove by 
his south winds condenses those things which just before were 
rare, and rarefies what things were dense ; the images of their 
minds are altered, and their breasts now receive different im- 
pressions (different, while the wind rolled the clouds). Hence 
that concert of birds in the fields, and the cattle frisking for 
joy, and the ravens exulting in their caws. 

But if you give attention to the rapid sun, and the moons 
in order following ; the hour of ensuing morn shall never 
cheat you, nor shall you be deceived by the treacherous aspect 
of a serene night. When first the moon collects the returning 
rays, if with horns obscure she encloses dusky air, a vast rain 
is preparing for swains and mariners. But, if she should 
spread a virgin blush over her face, wind will ensue : golden 
Phoebe 58 always reddens with wind. But if at her fourth 
rising (for that is the most unerring monitor) she passes along 
the sky pure and bright, nor with blunted horns ; both that 
whole day, and all those that shall come after it, till the month 
be finished, will be free from rains and winds : and the mariners, 
preserved, will pay their vows upon the shore to Glaucus, 59 
Panopea, and Melicerta, Ino's son. 

The sun too, both rising and when he sets in the waves, 
will give signs. The surest signs attend the sun, both those 
which he brings in the morning, and those when the stars 
arise. When he shall chequer his new-born foce with spots, 
hidden in a cloud, and has fled from view with half his orb, 
you may then suspect showers : for the south wind, pernicious 
to trees and corn and flocks, hastens from the sea. Or when, 

58 Phoebe, a name of Diana, or Luna (the moon) ; as Phoebus is a 
name of Apollo, or Sol (the sun). 

39 Glaucus, a fisherman of Anthedon, in Boeotia, son of Neptune anu 
Nai's, changed into a sea-deity. Panopea, a sea-nymph, one of the Ne- 
reids. Melicerta, the son of Athanas and Ino, changed into a sea-god, 
known also by the names of Palemon and Portumnus. 



b. i. 445-470. GEORGICS. 47 

at the dawn the rays shall break themselves diversely among 
the thick clouds ; or when Aurora, leaving the saffron bed of 
Tithonus, 60 rises pale; ah, the vine-leaf will then but ill de- 
fend the mellow grapes ; so thick the horrid hail bounds rat- 
tling on the roofs. This too it will be more advantageous to 
remember, when, having measured the heavens, he is just 
setting ; for often we see various colours wander over his face. 
The azure threatens rain ; the fiery, wind. But if the spots 
begin to be blended with bright fire, then you will see all 
things embroiled together with wind and storms of rain. Let 
none advise me that night to launch into the deep, or to tear 
my cable from the land. But if, both when he ushers in, and 
when he shuts up, the revolving day, his orb is lucid ; in vain 
will you be alarmed by the clouds, and you will see woods 
waved by the clear north wind. 

In fine, the sun will give thee signs what [weather] late 
Vesper brings, from what quarter the wind will roll the 
clouds serene, what wet Auster 61 meditates. Who dares to 
call the sun deceiver ? He even forewarns often that hidden 
tumults are at hand, and that treachery and secret wars are 
swelling to a head. He also pitied Rome at Cassar's death, 
when he covered his bright head with murky iron hue, 62 and 
the impious age feared eternal night ; though at that time the 
earth too, and ocean's plains, ill-omened dogs, and presaging 
birds, gave ominous signs. How often have we seen jEtna 63 

60 Tithonus, a son of Laomedon, king of Troy, was so beautiful that 
Aurora became enamoured of him, and carried him away to Ethiopia. 

61 Auster, the south wind. 

62 "When he shrouded his bright head with a dark ferruginous hue." 
According to Plutarch, (Vit. Cses. c. 90,) Pliny, (H. N. ii. 30,) and Dio 
Cassius, (xlv. 17.) the sun appeared of a dim and pallid hue after the 
assassination of Julius Caesar, and continued so during the whole of the 
year. It is said, too, that, for want of the natural heat of that luminary, 
the fruits rotted without coming to maturity. What Plutarch calls pale- 
ness, Virgil, it will be perceived, denominates by a stronger term, /m*z^o. 
This, of course, is the licence of poetry. The phenomenon mentioned by 
the ancient writers is thought by some modern inquirers to have been oc- 
casioned by spots on the sun ; and this is the more probable opinion. 
There appears, however, to have been an actual eclipse of the sun that 
same year, in the month of November. Anthon. 

63 Mtna., (Gibello,) a celebrated volcanic mountain of Sicily. This 
immense mountain is of a conical form ; it is two miles in perpendicular 
height, 100 miles round the base, with an ascent, in some places, of 3C 
miles, and its crater is a circle of about 3J miles in circumference. 



48 GEORGICS. b. i. 471-498. 

from its burst furnaces boil <over in waves on the lands of the 
Cyclops, 64 and shoot up globes of flame, and molten rocks ! 
Germany heard a clashing of arms over all the sky ; the Alps 
trembled with unwonted earthquakes. A mighty voice too 
was commonly heard through the silent groves, and spectres 
strangely pale were seen under cloud of night ; and the very 
cattle (O horrid !) spoke ; rivers stopped their courses, the 
earth yawned wide ; the mourning ivory weeps in the tem- 
ples, and the brazen statues sweat. Eridanus, 65 king of rivers, 
overflowed, whirling in mad §ddy whole woods along, and 
bore away the herds with their stalls over all the plains. 
Nor at the same time did either the fibres fail to appear 
threatening in the baleful entrails, or blood to flow from the 
wells, and cities to resound aloud with wolves howling by 
night. Never did more lightnings fall from a serene sky, or 
direful comets so often blaze. For this Philippi 66 twice saw 
the Roman armies in intestine war 67 engage; nor seemed it 
unbecoming to the gods, that Emathia 6S and the extensive 
plains of Hasmus should twice be fattened with our blood. 
Ay, and the time will come, when in those regions the hus- 
bandman, labouring the ground with the crooked plough, 
shall find javelins all-eaten with corrosive rust, or with his 
cumbrous harrows shall clash on empty helmets, and marvel 
at the huge bones in dug-up graves. 

Ye guardian deities of my country, ye Indigetes, 69 and thou, 

64 Cyclops, a gigantic race of men, sons of Coelus and Terra: they 
were Vulcan's workmen in fabricating the thunderbolts of Jupiter, and 
were represented having only one eye in the middle of their forehead. 

65 Eridanus, called afterwards Padus, (the Po,) the largest river of 
Italy, rises in the Alps, and, after a course of nearly 400 miles^ falls into 
',he Adriatic, to the south of the city of Venice. 

86 Philippi, a city of Macedonia, on the confines of Thrace, famous 
for the defeat of Brutus and Cassius by Antony and Augustus, b. c. 42. 
By the other battle at Philippi, mentioned here, Virgil is supposed to 
allude to that between Caesar and Pompey on the plains of Pharsalia, 
in Thessaly, which was fought near a town also called Philippi, 
b. c. 48. 

67 The force of "paribus telis" is well expressed by Lucan, i. 7, 
"pares aquilas, et pila minantia pilis," as remarked by Servius. B. 

68 Emathia, an ancient name of Macedonia and Thessaly. Haemus, an 
extensive chain of mountains through Thrace, &c, in length about 400 
miles. 

69 Indigetes, a name given to those deities who were worshipped ir, 
particular places, or to such heroes as were deified. 



*. i. 498—514. GEORGICS. 49 

O Romulus, 70 and mother Vesta, 71 who guardest the Tuscan 
Tiber, 72 and the palaces of Rome ; forbid not that this youth- 
ful hero at least repair the ruins of the age. Long since 
enough have we with our blood atoned for the perjuries of 
Laomedon's Troy. 73 Long since, O Caesar, the courts of hea 
ven envy us thee, and complain that thou art concerned about 
the triumphs of mortals ; since among them the distinctions 
of right and wrong are perverted ; so many wars, so many 
aspects of crimes, are throughout the world ; the plough has 
none of its due honours ; the fields lie waste, their owners 
being drawn for service ; and the crooked scythes are forged 
into rigid swords. Here Euphrates, 74 there Germany, raises 
war ; neighbouring cities, having broken their mutual leagues, 
take arms; impious Mars 75 rages through all the world. As 
when the four-horsed chariots have burst forth from the goal, 
they add speed to speed, and the charioteer, stretching in vain 
the bridle, is hurried away by the steeds, nor is the chariot 
heedful of the reins. 

70 Romulus, a son of Mars and Rhea, grandson of Numitor, king of Alba, 
and twin-brother of Remus. He was the founder and first king of Rome, 
which he built on Mount Palatine, b. c. 753. By the triumphs of their 
arms, and the terror of their name, the Romans gradually rose, during a 
succession of ages, to universal empire, and Rome became, for a time, 
mistress of the world. After his death, Romulus was ranked among the 
gods, and received divine honours under the name of Quirinus. 

71 Vesta, daughter of Rhea and Saturn, called the mother of the gods, 
was the goddess of fire, and the patroness of the vestal virgins, among 
the Romans. 

72 Tiber, a celebrated river of Italy, rises in the Apennines, and falls 
into the Mediterranean Sea, sixteen miles below the city of Rome. 

73 Laomedon, king of Troy, and the father of Priam. He built the 
walls of Troy, with the assistance of Apollo and Neptune ; but, on the 
work being finished, he refused to reward them for their labours, and, in 
consequence, incurred the displeasure of the gods. 

74 Euphrates, a celebrated river of Asia, which rises in the mountains 
of Armenia, and discharges itself into the Persian Gulf. 

75 Mars, the god of war. Among the Romans, this deity received the 
most unbounded honours. 



50 GEORGICS. b. n. 1—26 



BOOK II. 

Virgil, having, in the First Book, treated of tillage, proceeds in the Second 
to the subject of planting ; describes the varieties of trees, with the best 
methods of raising them ; gives rules for the management of the vine and 
olive, and for judging of the nature of soils ; and, in a strain of exalted 
poetry, celebrates the praises of Italy, and the pleasures of a country life. 

Thus far of the culture of fields, and of the constellations of 
the heavens ; now, Bacchus, will I sing of thee, and with thee 
of woodland trees, and of the slow-growing olive's offspring. 
Hither, O father 1 Lenasus 2 (here is all full of thy bounties: 
for thee the field, laden with the viny harvest, flourishes ; [for 
thee] the vintage foams in the full vats): hither, O father 
Lenasus, come ; and, having thy buskins stripped off, stain 
thy legs, bared of the sandals, with me in new wine. 

First, nature is various in producing trees : for some, with- 
out any cogent means applied by men, come freely of their 
own accord, and widely overspread the plains and winding 
rivers ; as the soft osier and limber broom, the poplar and 
the whitening willows, with sea-green leaves. But some arise 
from deposited seed ; as the lofty chestnuts, and the aesculus, 
which, in honour of Jove, shoots forth its leaves, the most 
majestic of the groves, and the oaks reputed oracular by the 
Greeks. To others a most luxuriant wood [of suckers] springs 
from the roots ; as the cherries and the elms : thus, too, the 
little bay of Parnassus raises itself under its mother's mighty 
shade. Nature at first ordained these means [for the produc- 
tion of trees] : by these every species blooms, of woods, and 
shrubs, and sacred groves. Others there are, which experi- 
ence has found out for itself on the way. 3 One, cutting off 
the tender suckers from the body of their mother, sets them 
in the furrows ; another buries the stocks in the ground, and 
stakes split in four, and poles with the wood sharpened to a 
point ; and some trees expect the bent-down arches of a layer, 

1 The term " pater " is here applied to Bacchus, not with any reference 
to advanced years, for the god is always represented by the ancient artists 
with the attributes of youth, (compare Muller, Archeeolog. der Kunst, 
p. 566,) but merely as indicative of his being the beneficent author of so 
many good gifts unto men. Anthon. 

2 Lenaeus, a surname of Bacchus, the god of wine, from Xrjvog, a 
v inepress. 

3 " Via " here denotes the " march of intellect." B. 



b. ii. 27-61. GEORGICS 51 

and living nurseries in their native soil. Others have no need 
of any root ; and the planter makes no scruple to commit to 
earth the topmost shoots, restoring them [to their parent soil]. 
Even (what is wondrous to relate) after the trunk is cut in 
pieces, the olive-tree shoots forth roots from the dry wood. 
Often we see the boughs of one tree transformed, with no 
disadvantage, into those of another, and a pear-tree, being 
changed, bear ingrafted apples, and stony cornels grow upon 
plum stocks. 4 

Wherefore come on, husbandmen, learn the culture pro- 
per to each kind, and soften the wild fruits by cultivation : 
nor let any lands lie idle: it is worth while to plant Ismarus 
with vines, and clothe vast Taburnus 5 with olives. 

And thou, glory mine, O thou deservedly the greatest 
portion of my fame, be present, Maecenas, pursue with me this 
task begun, and flying set sail on this sea, now opening wide. 
I choose not to comprise all matters in my verse, even if I 
had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, and an iron voice ; 
be present, and coast along the nearest shore. The earth is 
near at hand ; I will not here detain thee with fictitious song, 
or with circumlocution and tedious preamble. 

Those which spring up spontaneously into the regions of 
light are unfruitful indeed ; but they rise luxuriant and strong : 
for in the soil lies a native quality. Yet, if any one ingraft 
even these, or deposit them transplanted in trenches well pre- 
pared, they will put off their savage nature, and by frequent 
culture will not be slow to follow whatever modes of culture 
you call them to. And [the sucker] also which sprouts up 
barren from the low roots, will do the same, 6 if it be distri- 
buted through fields where room : now [in its natural state] 
the high shoots and branches of the mother overshadow, and 
hinder it from bearing fruit as it grows up, or pinch and 
starve it when it bears. The tree, again, that is raised from 
fallen seed, grows up slowly, so as to form a shade for late 
posterity, and its fruits degenerate, forgetting their former 
juices: thus even the vine bears sorry clusters, a prey for 
birds. In fact, labour must be bestowed on all, and all must 

4 So Martyn. But see Anthon. B. 

5 Taburnus, a mountain of Campania, in Italy, which abounded with 
olives. 

6 i. e. will lay aside its wild and unproductive nature. Anthon. 

e 2 



52 GEORGICS. b. ii. 62-90. 

be forced into the trench, and tamed with vast pains. But 
olives answer better [when propagated] by truncheons, vines 
by layers, the myrtles of the Paphian [goddess 7 by settings] 
from the solid wood. From suckers the hard hazels grow, 
the mighty ash, and the shady poplar-tree, a crown for Her- 
cules, and the oaks of the Chaonian Sire : thus also the lofty 
palm is propagated, and the fir-tree doomed to visit the dan- 
gers of the main. 

But the rugged arbute is ingrafted on the offspring of the 
walnut, and barren planes have borne stout apple-trees. 
Chestnut-trees [have borne] beeches, and the mountain ash 
hath whitened with 8 the snowy blossoms of the pear: and 
swine have crunched acorns under elms. Nor is the method 
of ingrafting the same with that of inoculating. For [inocu- 
lating is thus] : where the buds thrust themselves forth from 
the middle of the bark, and burst the slender coats, a small 
slit is made in the very knot : hither they enclose a bud from 
another tree, and teach it to unite with the moist rind. Or 
again, [in ingrafting,] the knotless stocks are cut, and a pas- 
sage is cloven deep into the solid wood with wedges : then 
fertile scions are inserted ; and in no long time a huge tree 
shoots up to heaven with prosperous boughs, and admires its 
new leaves and fruits not its own. 

Moreover, the species is not single, either of strong elms, 
or of willows, of the lote-tree, or of the Idaean cypresses; 9 
nor do the fat olives grow in one form, the orchades, and the 
radii, and the pausia with bitter berries ; nor apples, and the 
orchards of Alcinous; nor are the shoots the same of the 
Crustumian and Syrian pears, and of the heavy volemi. The 
same vintage hangs not on our trees, which Lesbos 10 gathers 

7 Paphian goddess. Venus was so called, from Paphos, (Baffa,) a city 
of Cyprus, where she was worshipped. 

8 " Incanuit" is an instance of zeugma, for the chestnut bears no white 
flower. B. 

9 Idaean cypresses, from Mount Ida, in the island of Crete. Orchards 
of Alcinous, king of Phaeacia, afterwards called Corcyra, (Corfu,) one of 
the Ionian islands : his gardens, which were greatly famed, are beauti- 
fully described by Homer. Crustumian and Syrian pears ; the first were 
so called from Crustuminum, a town of Etruria, in Italy ; and the latter 
from Syria, a country of Asia, along the eastern shore of the Mediterra- 
nean. Phoenicia and Palestine were generally reckoned provinces of 
Syria. 

10 Lesbos, (Mytilene,) a large island in the Archipelago, celebrated 



b ii. 91—116. GE0RG1CS. &6 

from the Methymnaean vine. There are the Thasian vines, 
and there are the white Mareotides ; these fit for a rich soil, 
and those for a lighter one : and the Psythian, more service- 
able when dried, and the thin lageos, which will tie the feet 
at length, and bind the tongue : the purple and the rath-ripe : 
And in what numbers shall I sing of thee, O Rhaetian grape ? 
nor therefore vie thou with the Falernian 11 cellars. There 
are also Amminean vines, best-bodied wines ; which even 
Tmolus and Phanae, king of mountains, honour; and the 
smaller Argitis, which none can rival, either in yielding so 
much juice, or in lasting so many years. I must not pass thee 
over, Rhodian grape, grateful to the gods and second courses, 
nor thee, bumastos, with thy swollen clusters. But we nei- 
ther can recount how numerous the species, nor what are their 
names, nor imports it to comprise their number ; which who- 
ever would know, the same may seek to learn how numerous 
are the sands of the Libyan Sea tossed by the zephyr ; or to 
know how many waves of the Ionian Sea 12 come to the shores, 
when Eurus, more violent, falls upon the ships. 

But neither can all soils bear all sorts [of trees]. Willows 
grow along the rivers, and elders in miry fens ; the barren 
wild ashes on rocky mountains ; the shores rejoice most in 
myrtle groves : Bacchus, in fine, loves open hills ; the yews, 
the north wind and the cold. 

Survey, also, the globe subdued by the most distant culti- 
vators, both the eastern habitations of the Arabians, 13 and the 
tattooed Geloni. Countries are distinguished by their trees. 

particularly the city of Methymna, for its excellent wines. Thasian 
vines, those of Thasos, also an island in the Archipelago, near the coast 
of Thrace. Mareotides, a vine from Mareotis, a lake in Egypt, near 
Alexandria. Psythian, from Psythia, an ancient town of Greece, famous 
for its grapes. Rhaetian grape, from Rhaetia, (the Tyrol, &c.,) a moun- 
tainous country to the north of Italy. 

11 Falernian, &c. Falernus, a fertile mountain and plain of Campania, 
in Italy. Amminia, a district of Campania. Phanse, a promontory of 
the island of Chios (Scio). Rhodian grape, from Rhodes, a large and 
fertile island in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Asia Minor, cele- 
brated for a colossal statue of Apollo. 

12 Ionian Sea, a part of the Mediterranean Sea, at the bottom of the 
Adriatic, and between Sicily and Greece. 

13 Arabians, &c, the inhabitants of Arabia, an extensive country of 
A sia, forming a peninsula between the Persian and Arabian Gulfs : the 
atter separates it from Africa. Geloni, a people of Scythia. 



54 GEOHGICS. b. ii. 117—146 

India alone bears black ebony : the frankincense-tree belongs 
to the Saboeans only. Why should I mention to thee balms 
distilling from the fragrant woods, and the berries of the ever- 
green acanthus ? why the forests of the Ethiopians whitening 
with downy wool? and how the Seres 14 comb the slender 
fleeces from the leaves ? or the groves which India, nearer the 
ocean, the utmost skirts of the globe, produces ? where no 
arrows ,by their flight have been able to surmount the airy 
summit of the tree : and yet that nation is not slow at archery. 
Media bears the bitter juices and the permanent flavour of the 
happy apple ; than which no remedy comes more seasonably, 
and expels the black venom from the limbs, when cruel step- 
dames have drugged the cup, and mingled herbs and not in- 
noxious spells. The tree itself is stately, and in form most 
like a bay ; and if it did not widely diffuse a different scent, 
would be a bay. Its leaves fall not off by any winds ; its 
blossoms are extremely tenacious. With it the Medes correct 
their breaths and unsavoury mouths, and cure their asthmatic 
old men. 

But neither the land of Media, most rich in woods, nor the 
beauteous Ganges, 15 and Hermus turbid with golden sands, 
can match the praises of Italy : not Bactra, 16 nor the Indians, 
and Panchaia, all enriched with incense-bearing soil. Bulls 
breathing fire from their nostrils never ploughed these regions, 
sown with the teeth of a hideous dragon ; nor did a crop of 
men shoot dreadful up with helmets and crowded spears : but 
teeming corn and Bacchus' Campanian juice have filled [the 
land], olives and joyous herbs possess it. Hence the warrior- 
horse with stately port advances into the field ; hence, Cli- 
tumnus, 17 thy white flocks, and the bull, chief of victims, after 

14 Seres, a nation of Asia, between the Ganges and Eastern Ocean ; the 
modern Tibet, or probably China. Media, a celebrated country of Asia, 
.o the south of the Caspian Sea. 

15 Ganges, a celebrated river of India, which arises in the Himalaya 
mountains, and, after a course of 1500 miles, falls into the bay of Bengal, 
below Calcutta. Hermus, (Sarabat,) a river of Lydia, in Asia Minor, 
whose sands were mingled with gold : it receives the waters of the Pac- 
tolus near Sardis, and falls into the iEgean, north-west of Smyrna. 

16 Bactra, (Balkh,) the capital of Bactriana, a country of Asia. 
Panchaia, a district of Arabia Felix. 

17 Clitumnus, a river of Umbria, in Italy, which falls into the Tiber 
It was famous for its milk-white flocks, selected as victims in the cele- 
oration of the triumph. 



b. ii. 147-169. GEORGICS. * 55 

they have been often plunged in thy sacred stream, escort the 
Roman triumphs to the temples of the gods. Here is per- 
petual spring, and summer in months not her own : twice a 
year the cattle are big with young, twice the trees productive 
in fruit. But here are no ravening tigers, nor the savage 
breed of lions ; nor wolfsbane deceives the wretched gather- 
ers; nor along the ground the scaly serpent sweeps his im- 
mense orbs, nor with so vast a train gathers up himself into 
coils. And so many magnificent cities, and works of elaborate 
art ; so many towns upreared with the hand on craggy rocks ; 
and rivers gliding beneath ancient walls. Or need I mention 
the sea which washes it above, and that below ? or its lakes 
so vast? thee, Larius, 18 of largest extent? and thee, Benacus, 
swelling with the waves and roaring of the sea ? Or shall I 
mention its ports, and the moles raised to dam the Lucrine, 19 
and the sea raging indignant with loud murmurs, where the 
Julian wave far resounds, the sea pouring in, and the Tuscan 
tide is let into the straits of Avernus ? The same land hath 
in its veins disclosed rivers of silver and mines of copper, and 
copious flowed with gold. The same hath produced a warlike 
race of men, the Marsi 20 and the Sabellian youth, and the 
Ligurian inured to hardship, and the Volscians armed with 
sharp darts : this same the Decii, 21 the Marii, and the great 

18 Larius, (Como,) a beautiful lake of Cisalpine Gaul, through which 
the Adua runs in its course to the Po, above Cremona. Benacus, (L. di 
Garda,) a large lake, from which the Mincius issues, and flows into 
the Po. 

19 Lucrine Lake, near Cumae, on the coast of Campania. During an 
earthquake, a. d. 1538, this lake disappeared, and in its place was formed 
a mountain, two miles in circumference, and one thousand feet high, with 
a crater in the middle. Avernus, a lake of Campania, whose waters were 
so putrid, that the ancients regarded it as the entrance of the infernal re- 
gions. Augustus united the Lucrine and Avernian lakes by the famous 
Julian harbour, and formed a communication between the latter lake 
and the sea. 

20 Marsi were a people of Germany, who emigrated to Italy, and set- 
tled near the lake Fucinus. The Sabellians were descended from the 
Sabines, or from the Samnites ; — the Ligurians inhabited Piedmont ; — 
the Volscians were a warlike people of Latium (Campagna di Roma). 

21 Decii, a noble family of Rome, w r ho devoted themselves to death for 
the safety of their country. Marii, the Marian family, the chief of whom 
was Caius Marius, who, from a peasant, became one of the most power- 
ful and cruel tyrants that Rome ever beheld during her consular govern- 
ment. > 



56 GEORGICS. b. ii. 170—!% 

Camilli, 22 the Scipios 23 invincible in war, and thee, most 
mighty Caesar; who, at this very time victorious in Asia's 
remotest limits, art turning away from the Roman towers the 
humbled Indian. Hail, Saturnian 24 land, great parent of 
fruits, great parent of heroes ; for thee I enter on a subject 
of ancient renown and art, venturing to disclose the sacred 
springs ; and I sing an Ascrsean strain through Roman cities. 

Now it is time to describe the qualities of soils ; what is 
the strength of age, what colour, and what its nature is most 
apt to produce. First, stubborn lands, and unfruitful hills, 
where lean clay [abounds], and pebbles in the bushy fields, 
rejoice in Pallas' wood of long-lived olives. The wild olive 
rising copious in the same soil is an evidence, and the fields 
strewn with woodland berries. But, to the ground that is fat, 
and gladdened with sweet moisture, and to the plain that is 
luxuriant in grass, and of a fertile soil, (such as we are often 
wont to look down upon in the hollow valley of a mountain,) 
streams glide from the high rocks, and draw a rich fattening 
slime along : and that which is raised to the south, and 
nourishes the fern abhorred by the crooked ploughs, will in 
time afford vines exceedingly strong, and flowing with abund- 
ant wine: this will be prolific of grapes, this of such liquor 
as we pour forth in libation from golden bowls, when the sleek 
Tuscan has blown the ivory pipe at the altars, and we offer 
up the smoking entrails in the bending chargers. 

But if you are rather studious to preserve herds [of kine] 
and calves, or the offspring of the sheep, or kids that kill the 
pastures; seek the lawns and distant fields of fruitful Taren- 
tum, 25 and plains like those which hapless Mantua hath lost, 

22 Camilli, two celebrated Romans, father and son : the latter was 
chosen five times dictator, expelled the Gauls under Brennus from Rome, 
and, on account of his services to his country, was called a second Ro- 
mulus. 

23 The Scipios. P. Cornelius Scipio, surnamed Africanus, the con- 
queror of Hannibal, and his grandson, ?. ^Smilianus Scipio, called Afri- 
canus the younger, on account of his victories over Carthage, b. c. 146. 
The two Scipios may justly be ranked among the brightest ornaments of 
Roman greatness. 

24 Saturnian land. Italy was so called, from Saturn, who, on being 
dethroned by Jupiter, fled to Italy, where he reigned during the golden 
age. 

25 Tarentum, (Torento,) a maritime city of Calabria in Italy, situated 
on a noble bay of the same name. 



b. ii. 199—229. GEORGICS. 57 

feeding snow-white swans in the grassy stream. Neither 
limpid springs nor pastures will be wanting to the flocks : and 
as much as the herds will crop in the long days, so much will 
the cold dews in the short night restore. 

A soil that is blackish and fat under the deep-pressed share, 
and whose mould is loose and crumbling, (for this we aim at 
in ploughing,) is generally best for corn ; (from no plain will 
you see more waggons move homeward with tardy oxen ;) or 
that from which the angry ploughman has cleared away a 
wood, and felled the groves that have been at a stand for 
many years, and with their lowest roots grubbed up the an- 
cient dwellings of the birds ; they abandoning their nests soar 
on high, but the field looks gay when the ploughshare is driven 
into it. For the lean hungry gravel of a hilly field scarcely 
furnishes humble cassia and rosemary for bees : and no other 
lands, they say, yield so sweet food to serpents, or afford them 
such winding coverts, as the rough rotten-stone, and chalk 
corroded by black water-snakes. That land which exhales 
thin mists and flying smoke, and drinks in the moisture, and 
emits it at pleasure ; and which always clothes itself with its 
own fresh grass, nor hurts the ploughshare with scurf and 
salt rust; will entwine thine elms with joyous vines; that 
also is fertile of olives ; that ground you will experience, in 
manuring, both to be friendly to cattle and submissive to 
the crooked share. Such a soil rich Capua 26 tills, and the 
territory neighbouring to Mount Vesuvius, 27 and the Clanius 
not kind to depopulated Acerrae. 28 

Now I will tell by what means you may distinguish each. 
If you desire to know whether it be loose or unusually stiff 
(because the one is fit for corn, the other for wine ; the stiff 
is best for Ceres, and the most loose for Bacchus) : first you 

26 Capua, a famous city of Italy, the capital of Campania. 

27 Vesuvius, a celebrated volcanic mountain of Campania, about six 
miles south-east of Naples, and 3780 feet high. The first great eruption 
of Vesuvius on record was accompanied by an earthquake, a. d. 79, when 
the towns of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabias were overwhelmed 
under lava and ashes. The discovery of these towns after having lain 
above 1600 years buried and unknown, has furnished the world with 
many curious and valuable remains of antiquity. 

28 Acerrae, a town of Campania, near the city of Naples; the river 
Clanius almost surrounded the town, and by its inundations frequently 
depopulated it. 



5S GEORGICS. b. ii. 230—263 

shall mark out a place with your eye, and order a pit to be 
sunk deep in solid ground, and again return all the mould into 
its place, and level with your feet the sands at top. If they 
prove deficient, the soil is loose, and more fit for cattle and 
bounteous vines : but, if they deny the possibility of returning 
to their places, and there be an overplus of mould after the 
pit is filled up, it is a dense soil; expect reluctant clods, and 
stiff ridges, and give the first ploughing to the land with sturdy 
bullocks. 

But saltish ground, and what is accounted bitter, where 
corn can never thrive, 29 (it neither mellows by ploughing, nor 
preserves to grapes their kind, nor to fruits their qualities,) 
will give a proof to this effect. Snatch from the smoky roofs 
baskets of close woven twigs, and the strainers of thy wine- 
press. Hither let some of that vicious mould, and sweet water 
from the spring, be pressed brimful : be sure all the water 
will strain out, and big drops pass through the twigs. But 
the taste will clearly make discovery ; and in its bitterness will 
distort the wry faces of the tasters with the sensation. 

Again, what land is fat we briefly learn thus : When 
squeezed by the hand, it never crumbles, but, in handling, it 
sticks to the fingers like pitch. The moist soil produces herbs 
of a larger size, and is itself luxuriant beyond due measure. 
Ah, may none of mine be [thus] too fertile, nor show itself too 
strong at the first springing of the grain ! 

That which is heavy betrays itself by its very weight, with- 
out my telling you ; and likewise the light. It is easy to dis- 
tinguish the black at first sight, and what is the colour of each. 
But to search out the mischievous cold, is difficult : only pitch- 
trees, and sometimes noxious yews, or black ivy, disclose its 
signs. 

These rules observed, remember to dry and bake the soil 
\ong before, and to encompass the spacious hills with trenches, 
expose the turned-up clods to the north wind, before you plant 
the vine's joyous race. Fields of a loose crumbling soil are 
best ; this effect the winds and cold frosts produce, and the 
sturdy delver, close plying his acres, tossed and turned upside 
down. 

But those men, whom not any vigilance escapes, first seek 

29 This rule is however scarcely universal, as is shown by Van Goe&. 
on the Scriptorr. Rei Agrim. p. 137. B« 



j. ii. 266-303. GEORGICS. o9 

out the same sort of soil, where the first nursery may be pro- 
vided for their trees, and whither it may soon be transplanted 
in rows ; lest the slips take not kindly to this mother suddenly 
changed. They even mark on the bark the quarter of the sky, 
that, in whatever manner each stood, in what part it bore the 
southern heats, what sides it turned to the northern pole, they 
may restore [it to the same position]. Of such avail is cus- 
tom in tender years. 

Examine, first, whether it is better to plant your vines on 
hills or on a plain. If you lay out the fields of a rich plain, 
plant thick ; Bacchus will not be less productive in a densely- 
planted soil: but if a soil rising with a gentle ascent, and 
sloping hills, give room to your ranks ; yet so that, your trees 
being exactly ranged, each path between may be exactly even, 
a line being cut. As often in dread war, when the extended 
legion hath ranged its cohorts, the battalions stand marshalled 
on the open plain, the armies set in array, and 1?he whole 
ground wide waves with gleaming brass; nor yet are they 
engaged in horrid battle, but Mars hovers dubious in the 
midst of arms : [thus,] let all your vineyards be laid out in 
equal proportions, not only that the prospect may idly feed 
the mind, but because the earth will not otherwise supply 
equal strength to all ; nor will the branches be able to extend 
themselves at large. 

Perhaps, too, you may ask what depth is proper for the 
trenches. I could venture to commit my vine even to a slight 
furrow. Trees, again, are sunk deeper down, and far into the 
ground : especially the aesculus, which shoots downward to 
Tartarus with its roots, as far as [it rises] with its top to the 
ethereal regions. Therefore, nor wintry storms, nor blasts of 
winds, nor showers, can uproot it : it remains unmoved, and, 
rolling many ages of men away, outlasts them in surviving ; 
then stretching wide its sturdy boughs and arms this way and 
that way, itself in the midst sustains a mighty shade. 

Nor let the vineyards lie towards the setting sun ; nor plant 
the hazel among your vines ; neither seek after the extremities 
of the shoots ; nor gather your cuttings from the top of the 
tree, so much is their love for the earth : nor hurt your shoots 
with blunted steel ; nor plant among them truncheons of wild 
olive. For fire is often let fall from the unwary shepherds, 
which at first secretly lurking under the unctuous bark, 



60 GEORGICS. b. ii. 304—340. 

catches the solid wood, and shooting up into the topmost 
leaves, raises a loud crackling to heaven ; thence pursuing its 
way, reigns victorious among the branches and the lofty tops, 
involves the whole grove in flames, and, condensed in pitchy 
vapour, darts the black cloud to heaven ; especially if a storm 
overhead rests on the woods, and the driving wind rolls round 
the flames. When this happens, their strength decays from 
the root, nor can they recover, though cut, or sprout up from 
the deep earth such as they were : the unblest wild olive with 
its bitter leaves [alone] survives. 

Let no counsellor be so wise in your eyes as to persuade 
you to stir the rigid earth when Boreas breathes. Then winter 
shuts up the fields with frost ; and when the slip is planted, 
suffers not the frozen root to fasten to the earth. The planta- 
tion of the vineyard is best, when in blushing spring the white 
stork comes in, abhorred by the long snakes ; or towards the 
first colds of autumn, when the vehement sun does not yet 
touch the winter with his steeds, and the summer is just gone. 
The spring, too, is beneficial to the foliage of the groves, the 
spring is beneficial to the woods : in spring the lands swell, 
and demand the genial seeds. Then almighty father JEther 30 
descends in fertilizing showers into the bosom of his joyous 
spouse, and great himself, mingling with her great body, 
nourishes all her offspring. Then the retired brakes resound 
with tuneful birds ; and the herds renew their loves on the 
stated days. Then bounteous earth is teeming to the birth, 
and the fields open their bosoms to the warm breezes of the 
Zephyr : in all a gentle moisture abounds ; and the herbs dare 
safely trust themselves to the infant suns ; nor do the vine's 
tender shoots fear the rising south winds, or the shower pre- 
cipitated from the sky by the violent north winds ; but put 
forth their buds, and unfold all their leaves. No other day, 31 
I should think, had shone at the first origin of the rising world; 
it was spring, the spacious globe enjoyed spring, and the east 
winds spared their wintry blasts ; when first the cattle drew 
in the light, and the earthly race of men upreared their heads 

30 Virgil here follows the notions of Chrysippus, as delivered in ^Eschy- 
lus, (Fragm. Danaid. fragm. 38, Dind.,) but especially by Euripides, 
(Fragm. Chrysipp. No. vi. Dind.) B. 

31 It was an ancient supposition, that the world was created in the 
spring. B. 



b. ii. 341—371. GEORGICS. 61 

from the rugged glebe, and the woods were stocked with wild 
beasts, and the heavens with stars. Nor could the tender pro- 
ductions [of nature] bear this labour, if so great rest did not 
intervene between the cold and heat, and if heaven's indulgent 
season did not visit the earth in its turn. 

For what remains, whatever layers you bend down over all 
the fields, overspread them with fat dung, and carefully cover 
them with copious earth ; or bury about them spongy stones, 
or rough shells : for thus the rains will soak through, and a 
subtile vapour penetrate them, and the plants will take cour- 
age. Some, too, have been found, who are for pressing them 
from above with a stone, and the weight of a great potsherd : 
this is a defence against the pouring rains : this [a defence] 
when the sultry dog-star cleaves the gaping fields with 
drought. 

After your layers are planted, it remains to convey earth 
often to the roots, and ply the hard drags ; or to work the soil 
under the deep-pressed share, and guide your struggling bul- 
locks through the very vineyards ; then to adapt [to the vines] 
smooth reeds, and spears of peeled rods, and ashen stakes, and 
two-horned forks ; by whose strength they may learn to shoot 
up, to contemn the winds, and climb from stage to stage along 
the highest elms. 

And, while their infant age sprouts with new-born leaves, 
you must spare the tender vines ; and while the joyous shoot 
raises itself on high, being sent onward through the open air 
with loose reins, 32 the edge of the pruning-knife itself must 
not be applied ; but the leaves should be plucked with the in- 
bent hands, and culled here and there. Thereafter, when they 
have shot forth, embracing the elms with firm stems, then cut 
their locks, then lop their arms. Before this they dread the 
steel ; then, and not till then, exercise severe dominion, and 
check the loose straggling boughs. 

Fences, too, should be woven, and all cattle be kept out ; 
especially while the leaves are tender and unacquainted with 

32 A metaphor taken from horses, in imitation of Lucretius : 
Arboribus datum est variis exinde per auras 
Crescendi magnum immissis certamen habenis. 
Per purum in Virgil signifies the same as per auras in Lucretius. Horace 
uses it also for the air : 

Per purum tonantes 

E/rit eauos. 



62 GEORGICS. b. ii. 372-399 

hardships ; to which, besides the rigorous winters and vehe- 
ment sun, the wild bulls 33 and persecuting goats continually do 
wanton harm ; the sheep and greedy heifers browse upon them. 
Nor do the colds, condensed in hoary frosts, or the severe heat 
beating upon the scorched rocks, hurt them so much as the 
flocks, and poison of their hard teeth, and a scar imprinted on 
the gnawed stem. 

For no other offence is the goat sacrificed to Bacchus on 
every altar, and the ancient plays come upon the stage : 34 and 
the Athenians proposed for wits prizes Kbout the villages and 
crossways; and, joyous amidst their cups, danced in the soft 
meadows on wine-skins smeared with oil. [On the same ac- 
count,] the Ausonian 35 colonists also, a race sent from Troy, 
sport in uncouth strains, and unbounded laughter ; assuming 
horrid masks of hollowed barks of trees : and thee, Bacchus, 
they invoke in jovial songs, and to thee hang up mild images 36 
from the tall pine. Hence every vineyard shoots forth with 
large produce ; both the hollow vales and deep lawns are filled 
with plenty, and wherever the god hath moved around his 
propitious countenance. Therefore will we solemnly ascribe 
to Bacchus his due honours in our country's lays, and offer 
chargers, and the consecrated cakes ; and the sacred goat led 
by the horn shall stand at his altar, and we will roast the fat 
entrails on hazel spits. 

There is also that other toil in dressing the vines ; on 
which you can never bestow pains enough : for the whole soil 
must be ploughed three or four times every year, and the 

33 These must not be confounded with either the bison or the buffalo. 
See Anthon. B. 

34 Proscenia. In the Roman theatre there was first the porticus or 
gallery for the populace, where the seats were formed like wedges, grow- 
ing narrower as they came near the centre of the theatre, and therefore 
called cunei, or wedges. 2. The orchestra, in the centre and lowest part 
of the theatre, where the senators and knights sat, and where the dancers 
arid musicians performed. 3. The proscenium, or space before the scenes, 
which was raised above the orchestra, and where the actors spoke. 

35 Ausonian, &c, the inhabitants of Ausonia, an ancient name of Italy, 
who were supposed to be descended from ^Eneas. 

36 Compare Anthon's remark : " And in honour of thee hang up the 
mild oscilla on the tall pine." Oscillum, a diminutive, through osculum, 
from os, means, properly, " a little face, and was the term applied to faces 
or heads of Bacchus, which were suspended in the vineyards to be turned 
in every direction by the wind. Whichsoever way they looked, they were 
supposed to make the vines and other things in that quarter fruitful." 



It. ir. 400— 43;3. GEORGICS. 63 

clods con tinu ally be broken with bended drags ; the whole 
grove must be disburdened of its leaves. The farmer's past 
labour returns in a circle, and the year rolls round on itself on 
its own steps. And now, when at length the vineyard has 
shed its late leaves, and the cold north wind has shaken from 
the groves their honours ; 37 even then the active swain extends 
his cares to the coming year, and closely plies the forsaken 
vine, cutting off [the superfluous roots] with Saturn's crooked 
hook, and forms it by pruning. Be the first to trench the 
ground, be the first to carry home and burn the shoots, and 
the first to return beneath your roof the vine-props : be the 
last to reap the vintage. Twice the shade assails the vines ; 
twice do weeds overrun the field with thick bushes ; each a 
hard labour. Commend large farms ; cultivate a small one. 
Besides all this, the rough twigs of butcher's-broom are to be 
cut throughout the woods, and the watery reed on the banks : 
and the care of the uncultivated willow gives new toil. Now 
the vines are tied ; now the vineyard lays aside the pruning- 
hook ; now the exhausted vintager salutes in song his utmost 
rows : yet must the earth be vexed anew, and the mould put 
in motion ; and now Jove is to be dreaded by the ripened 
grapes. 

On the other hand, the olives require no culture ; nor do 
they expect the crooked pruning-hook and tenacious harrows, 
when once they are rooted in the ground, and have stood the 
blasts. Earth of herself supplies the plants with moisture, 
when opened by the hooked tooth of the drag, and weighty 
fruits, when [opened] by the share. Nurture for thyself with 
this the fat and peace-delighting olive. The fruit-trees too, 
as soon as they feel their trunks vigorous, and acquire their 
strength, quickly shoot up to the stars by their own virtue, 
and need not our assistance. At the same time, every grove 
is in like manner loaded with offspring, and the uncultivated 
haunts of birds glow with blood-red berries : the cytisus is 
browsed ; the tall wood supplies with torches ; and our noc- 
turnal fires are fed, and shed beamy light. And do men hesi- 
tate to plant and bestow care ? 

Why should I insist on greater things ? The very willows 
and lowly broom supply either browse for cattle, or shade for 

27 Hor. Ep. ii. 5. " December — silvis honorem decutit" B. 



64 GEORGICS. b. ii. 436-462 

shepherds, fences for the corn, and materials for honey. It ia 
delightful to behold Cy torus 38 waving with the grove of Na- 
rycian pitch : it is delightful to see the fields not indebted to 
the harrows, or to any care of men. Even the barren woods 
on the top of Caucasus, which the fierce east winds continually 
are crushing and tearing, yield each their different produce • 
they yield pines, an useful wood for ships, and cedars and cy- 
presses for houses. Hence the husbandmen have rounded 
spokes for wheels ; hence they have framed solid orbs for 
waggons, and bending keels for ships. The willows are fertile 
in twigs, the elms in leaves for fodder ; the myrtle again is 
useful for sturdy spears, and the cornel for war ; the yews 
are bent into Ityraean bows. 39 In like manner the smooth- 
grained limes, or box polished by the lathe, receive a shape, 
and are hollowed with sharp steel. Thus too the light alder, 
launched on the Po, 40 swims the rapid stream : thus too the 
bees hide their swarms in the hollow bark, and in the heart of 
. a rotten holm. What have the gifts of Bacchus produced so 
worthy of record ? Bacchus has given occasion to offence and 
guilt : he quelled by death the furious Centaurs, 41 Rhoetus and 
Pholus, and Hylseus threatening the Lapithae with a huge 
goblet. 

Ah ! the too happy swains, did they but know their own 
bliss ! to whom, at a distance from discordant arms, earth, of 
herself most liberal, pours from her bosom their easy susten- 
ance. If the palace, high raised with proud gates, vomits not 
forth from all its apartments a vast tide of morning visitants ; 

38 Cytorus, (Kidros,) a city and mountain of Paphlagonia, on the 
Euxine. Narycian pitch, from Narycia, a town of the Locrians in Magna 
Graecia, in the neighbourhood of which were forests of pine, &c. 

39 Ityraean bows, from Ityrsea, a province of Syria, whose inhabitants 
were famous archers. 

40 Po, anciently called also Eridanus, the largest river of Italy, rises 
in Mount Vestulus, one of the highest mountains of the Alps, and after an 
easterly course of nearly 400 miles, and receiving numerous tributary 
streams, discharges its waters into the Adriatic, about 30 miles S. of the 
city of Venice. 

41 Centaurs, a people of Thessaly, represented as monsters, half men 
and half horses. The Lapithae, also a people of Thessaly, who inhabited 
the country about Mount Pindus and Othrys. The allusion here is to 
the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithae, at the celebration of the 
nuptials of Pirithous, king of the latter, who invited not only the heroes 
of his age, but also the gods themselves. In the contest that ensued, 
many of the Centaurs were slain, and the rest saved themselves by flight. 



R n# 463—492. GEORGICS. 65 

and they gape not at porticoes variegated with beauteous tor- 
toise-shell, and on tapestries tricked with gold, and on Co- 
rinthian brass ; and if the white wool is not stained with the 
Assyrian drug, nor the use of the pure oil corrupted with 
Cassia's aromatic bark ; yet [there is] peace secure, and a life 
ignorant of guile, rich in various opulence ; yet [theirs are] 
peaceful retreats in ample fields, grottoes, and living lakes ; 
yet [to them] cool vales,- the lowings of kine, and soft slum- 
bers under a tree, are not wanting. There are woodlands and 
haunt3 for beasts of chase, and youth patient of toil, and 
inured to thrift ; the worship of the gods, and fathers held in 
veneration : Justice, when she left the world, took her last 
steps among them. 

But me may the Muses, sweet above all things else, 42 whose 
sacred symbols I bear, smitten with violent love, first receive 
into favour ; and show me the paths of heaven, and constella- 
tions ; the various eclipses of the sun, and labours of the 
moon ; whence the trembling of the earth ; from what influ- 
ence the seas swell high, bursting their barriers, and again 
sink back into themselves ; why the winter suns make such 
haste to dip themselves in the ocean, or what delay retards 
the slow-paced [summer] nights. 

But if the cold blood about my heart hinders me from 
penetrating into these parts of nature ; let fields and streams 
gliding in the valleys be my delight ; inglorious may I court 
the rivers and the woods. O [to be] where are the plains, 43 
and Sperchius, and Tayget^s, 44 the scene of Bacchanalian 
revels to Spartan maids ! O who will place me in the cool val- 
leys of Haemus, and shelter me with a thick shade of boughs ? 
Happy is he who has been able to trace out the causes of 
things, and who has cast beneath his feet all fears, and in- 
exorable Destiny, and the noise of devouring Acheron? 45 

42 I have followed Wagner in joining " dulces ante omnia," but I Lave 
some doubts whether the old interpretation is not better. B. 

43 Thessalian plains. Thessaly, a country of Greece, south of Mace- 
donia, in which was the celebrated vale of Tempe. Sperchius, a river of 
Thessaly, rises in Mount CEta, and runs into the Maliac Gulf, near the 
pass of Thermopylae. 

44 Taygetus, a mountain of Laconia in Peloponnesus, (Morea.) on 
which were celebrated the orgies of Bacchus ; it hung over the city of 
Sparta, and extended from Taenarus to Arcadia. 

45 Acheron, one of the rivers of hell, according to the ancient poets ; 



66 GEORGICS. b. ii. 493—521 

Blest too is he who has known the rural deities, Pan and old 
Silvanus, and the sister nymphs ! him nor the fasces of the 
people, nor the purple of kings ; nor discord persecuting faith- 
less brothers, nor the Dacian descending from the conspiring 
Danube; 46 nor the revolutions of Eome, or perishing king- 
doms, have moved. He neither pined with grief, lamenting 
the poor, nor envied the rich. What fruits the boughs, what 
the willing fields spontaneously yielded, he gathered ; nor saw 
the iron-hearted laws, the madly litigious bar, or the public 
courts. 

Some vex the dangerous seas with oars, some rush into 
arms, some work their way into courts, and the palaces of 
kings. One destines a city and wretched families to destruc- 
tion, that he may drink in gems, and sleep on Tyrian purple. 47 
Another hoards up wealth, and broods over buried gold. 
One, astonished at the rostrum, grows giddy ; another, peals 
of applause along the rows, (for it is redoubled both by the 
people and the fathers,) have captivated, and set agape ; some 
rejoice when stained with their brother's blood ; and exchange 
their homes and sweet thresholds for exile, and seek a coun^ 
try lying under another sun. The husbandman cleaves the 
earth with a crooked plough ; hence the labours of the year ; 
hence he sustains the country, and his little offspring ; hence 
his herds of kine, and deserving steers. Nor is there any in- 
termission, but the year either abounds with apples, or with 
the breed of the flocks, or with the sheaf of Ceres' stalk ; loads 
the furrows with increase, and overstocks the barns. Winter 
comes: the Sicyonian 48 berry is pounded in the oil-presses ; 
the swine come home gladdened with acorns ; the woods yield 
their arbutes ; and the autumn lays down its various produc- 

often taken for hell itself. Virgil here follows Lucretius, i. 37, " Et 
metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus Funditus, humanam qui 
vitam turbat ab imo, Omnia suffundens mortis nigrore." And soon after, 
vs. 79, " Quare religio pedibus subjecta." B. 

** The Danube rises in the black forest of Suabia, and, after a course of 
about 1600 miles, discharges itself into the Euxine Sea. The Dacians 
inhabited an extensive country, north of the Danube, now called Walla- 
chia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. 

47 Tyrian purple, from Tyre, a city of Phoenicia in Asia, celebrated for 
its early commerce and numerous colonies, and for the invention of scar- 
let and purple colours ; its ancient name was Sarra, now Soor. 

48 Sicyonian berry, the olive, with which Sicyonia, a district of Pelo- 
ponnesus, in Greece, abounded. 



K ii. 521—542. in. 1—3. GEORGICS. (57 

tions; and high on the sunny rocks the mild vintage is 
ripened. Meanwhile the sweet babes twine round their pa- 
rents' neck : his chaste family maintain their purity ; the cows 
hang down their udders full of milk ; and the fat kids wrestle 
together with butting horns on the cheerful green. The swain 
himself celebrates festal days; and, extended on the grass, 
where a fire is in the middle, and where his companions crown 
the bowl, invokes thee, O Lenaeus, making libation; and on 
an elm sets forth to the masters of the flock prizes to be con- 
tended for with the winged javelin ; and they strip their hardy 
bodies for the rustic ring. 

This life of old the ancient Sabines ; 49 this Remus and his 
brother strictly observed; thus Etruria 50 grew in strength; 
and thus too did Rome become the glory and beauty of the 
world, and, single, hath encompassed for herself seven hills 
with a wall. This life, too, golden Saturn led on earth, be- 
fore the sceptred sway of the Dictaean 51 king, and before an 
impious race feasted on slain bullocks. Nor yet had mankind 
heard the warlike trumpets blow ; nor yet the swords laid on 
the hard anvils clatter. 

But we have finished this immensely extended field ; and 
now it is time to unloose the smoking necks of our steeds. 

BOOK in. 

In the third Book, after invoking the rural deities, and eulogizing Augustus, 
Virgil treats of the management of cattle, laying down rules for the choice 
and breeding of horses, oxen, sheep, &c. The book abounds in admirable 
descriptions ; many passages are inimitably fine. 

Thee, too, great Pales, and thee, famed shepherd from Am- 
phrysus, 1 ye woods and Arcadian rivers, will I sing. Other 
themes, that might have entertained minds disengaged from 

49 Sabines, an ancient people of Italy, reckoned among the aborigenes, 
or those inhabitants whose origin was unknown ; their country was situ- 
ated between the rivers Tiber, Nar, and Anio, having the Apennines on 
the east. 

50 Etruria, (Tuscany,) a country of Italy lying west of the Tiber. 

51 Dictaean king, Jupiter is so called from Mount Dicte in Crete, where 
he was worshipped. 

1 Amphrysus, a river of Thessary, on the banks of which Apollo fed 
the flocks of king Admetus. Arcadian rivers : Arcadia was a pastoral 
district of Peloponnesus in Greece, of which Pan was the tutelary deity. 

f 2 



68 GEORGICS. b. in. 4— 2G 

song, are now all trite and common. Who is unacquainted 
either with severe Eurystheus, 2 or the altars of infamous 
Busiris ? By whom has not the boy Hylas been recorded, and 
Latonian Delos ? 3 or Hippodame, 4 and Pelops, conspicuous 
for his ivory shoulder, victorious in the race ? I, too, must at- 
tempt a way, whereby I may raise myself from the ground, 
and victorious hover through the lips of men. 

I first returning from the Aonian mount, will (provided 
life remain) bring along with me the Muses into my country ; 
for thee, O Mantua, I first will bear off the Idumasan 5 palms, 
and on thy verdant plains erect a temple of marble, near the 
stream where the great Mincius winds in slow meanders, and 
fringes the banks with tender reed. In the middle will I have 
Cassar, and he shall command the temple. In honour of him 
will I victorious, and in Tynan purple conspicuous, drive a 
hundred four-horsed chariots along the river. For me all 
Greece, leaving Alpheus 6 and the groves of Molorchus, shall 
contend in races and the raw-hide cestus. I myself, graced 
with leaves of the shorn olive, will bear offerings. Even now 
I am well pleased to lead on the solemn pomps to the temple, 
and to see the bullocks slain ; or how the scene with shifting 
front retires ; and how the inwoven Britons lift up the purple 
curtain. On the doors will I delineate, in gold and solid 

2 Eurystheus, king of Argos and Mycenae, who, at the instigation of 
Juno, imposed upon Hercules the most perilous enterprises, well known 
by the name of the twelve labours of Hercules. Busiris, a king of 
Egypt, noted for his cruelty in sacrificing all foreigners who entered his 
country. 

3 Delos, a small but celebrated island of the ^Egean Sea, nearly in 
the centre of the Cyclades, in which Latona gave birth to Apollo and 
Diana; hence the former is frequently called Delius, and the latter 
Delia. 

4 Hippodame, a daughter of CEnomaus, king of Pisa in Elis. Her 
father refused to marry her except to him who could overcome him in a 
chariot race ; thirteen had already been conquered, and forfeited their 
lives, when Pelops, the son of Tantalus, entered the lists, and by bribing 
Myrtilus, the charioteer of CEnomaus, insured to himself the victory. 

6 ldumaean palms, from Idumaea, a country of Syria, on the south of 
J uda,a, famed for its palm-trees. 

6 Alpheus, (Rouphia,) a river of Elis in Peloponnesus, where the 
Olympic games were celebrated. Molorchus, a shepherd of Argolis, who 
kindly received Hercules, and in return the hero slew the Nemaean lion 
which laid waste the country ; hence the institution of the Nemaean 
games. 



b. in. 27—45. GEOEGICS. 69 

ivory, the battle of the Gangarides, 7 and the arms of conquer- 
ing Quirinus ; and here the Nile 8 swelling with war, flowing 
majestic, and columns rising with naval brass. I will add the 
vanquished cities of Asia, and subdued Niphates, 9 and the 
Parthian presuming on his flight and arrows shot backward, 10 
and two trophies snatched by the hand from two widely-distant 
foes, and nations twice triumphed over on either shore. Here 
too shall stand in Parian 11 marble, breathing statues, the off- 
spring of Assaracus, 12 and the chiefs of the Jove-descended 
race ; both Tros, the great ancestor [of Rome], and Cynthian 
Apollo, founder of Troy. Here baneful envy shall dread the 
Furies, and the grim river of Cocytus, 13 Ixion's twisted snakes, 
the enormous wheel, and the insurmountable stone. 

Meanwhile, let us pursue the woods of the Dryads, and un- 
trodden lawns ; thy commands, Maecenas, of no easy import. 
Without /thee my mind ventures on nothing sublime ; come 
then, break off idle delays. Cithaeron L4 calls with loud halloo, 
and the hounds of Taygetus, and Epidaurus, the tamer of 
horses ; and the voice, doubled by the assenting groves, re- 

7 Gangarides, a people of Asia, near the mouth of the Ganges. 

8 Nile, a great river of Africa, and one of the most celebrated in the 
world, is generally supposed to have its sources in that immense chain of 
mountains in Central Africa, called the Mountains of the Moon. Its 
course runs in a northerly direction, flowing through Nubia and Egypt ; 
a little below Cairo it divides itself into two great branches, which en- 
close the Delta, and fall into the Mediterranean, the western branch at 
Rosetta, and the eastern at Damietta. 

9 Niphates, a mountain of Armenia, part of the range of Taurus, from 
which the river Tigris takes its rise. 

10 Cf. Plutarch, Crass, p. 558, v7rs(pevyov ydp lifxa paWovreg oi 
TIapOoi. B. 

11 Parian marble, from Paros, an island of the iEgean Sea, one of the 
Cyclades, famed for its beautiful white marble. 

12 Assaracus, a Trojan prince, father of Capys, and grandfather of An 
chises. Tros, a son of Erichthonius, king of Troy, which was so named 
after him. Cynthian Apollo : the surname is from Cynthus, a mountain 
in the island of Delos, where Apollo and Diana were born, and which 
was sacred to them. 

13 Cocytus, a river of Epirus in Greece, called by the poets one of the 
rivers of hell. Ixion, a king of Thessaly, whom Jupiter is fain to have 
struck with his thunder for having attempted to seduce Juno; he was 
bound with serpents to a wheel in hell, which was perpetually in motion. 

14 Cithaeron, a mountain of Bceotia in Greece, sacred to Jupiter and 
the Muse^ Epidaurus, (Pidavra,) a city of Argolis in Peloponnesus, 
tamed f<nflkemple of Esculapius, and for its fine breed of horses. 



70 GEORGICS. b. in. 46—80, 

echoes. Yet ere long shall I be prepared to sing of Caesar's 
ardent battles, and to transmit his name with honour through 
as many years as Caesar is distant from the first origin of 
Tithonus. 

Whether any one, aspiring to the praises of the Olympian 
palm, breeds horses, or whether any one [breeds] sturdy bul- 
locks for the plough, let him choose with special care the 
bodies of the mothers. The stern-eyed heifer's form is best, 
whose head is disproportionately large, whose neck is brawny, 
and whose dew -laps hang from the chin down to the legs. 
Then there is no measure in her length of side ; all her parts 
are huge, even her foot ; and her ears are rough under her 
crumpled 15 horns. Nor would she displease me if streaked with 
white spots, or if she refuses the yoke, and sometimes is surly 
with her horn, and in aspect approaches nearer to a bull, and 
if she is stately throughout, and sweeps her steps with the 
extremity of her tail, as she goes along. 

The age to undergo breeding and proper union ends before 
ten, and begins after four years : the other years [cows] are 
neither fit for breeding, nor strong for the plough. Mean- 
time, while the flocks abound with sprightly youth, let loose 
the males : be the first to indulge thy cattle in the joys of 
love : and by generation raise up one race after another. Each 
best time of life fly fast away from wretched mortals : dis- 
eases succeed, and sad old age, and pain ; and the inclemency 
of inexorable death snatches them away. There will always 
be some whose bodies you would choose to have changed [for 
better]. Therefore continually repair them ; and, that you 
may not regret them when lost, be beforehand, and yearly 
provide a new offspring for the herd. 

The same discriminating care is also requisite for a breed 
of horses. But still, on those which you intend to bring up 
for the hope of the race, bestow your principal diligence im- 
mediately from their tender years. The colt of generous 
breed from the very first walks high throughout the fields, 
and nimbly moves his pliant legs ; he is the first that dares to 
lead the way, and tempt the threatening floods, and trust him- 
self to an unknown bridge ; nor starts affrighted at vain 
alarms. Lofty is his neck, his head little and slender, hie 

15 Nonius, Marc, i., explains " camurum by obtortum." Hesiod, Opp 
152, 'iXiicac (3oag. B. 



A in. 81-109. GEORGICS. 71 

belly short, his back plump, and his proud chest swells luxu- 
riant with brawny muscles : (the bright bay and bluish grey 
are in most request ; the worst colours are the white and sor- 
rel.) Then, if he by chance hears the distant sound of arms, 
he knows not how to stand still ; he pricks up his ears, trem- 
bles in every joint, and snorting, rolls the collected fire under 
his nostrils. Thick is his mane, and, waving, rests on his right 
shoulder. A double spine 16 runs along his loins, his hoof 
scoops up the ground, and deep resounds with its solid horn. 
Such was Cyllarus, broken by the reins of Amyclaean Pollux, 17 
and such (which the Grecian poets have described) the har- 
nessed brace of Mars, and the chariot-horses l8 of great Achil- 
les. Such Saturn too himself, swift at the coming of his 
wife, spread out a full mane on his [assumed] horse's neck, 
and flying filled lofty Pelion with shrill neighing. 

Him too, when with sickness oppressed, or now enfeebled 
with years, he fails, shut up in his lodge, and spare his not in- 
glorious age. An old horse is cold to love, and in vain drags 
on the ungrateful task, and if ever he comes to an engagement, 
he is impotently furious, as at times a great fire without 
strength among stubble. Therefore chiefly mark their spirit 
and age ; then their other qualities, their parentage, and what 
is the sorrow of each when vanquished, what the pride when 
victorious. 

See you not ? 19 when in the rapid race the chariots have 
seized the plain, and pouring forth rush along ; when the 
hopes of the youth are elevated, and palpitating fear heaves 
their throbbing hearts : they ply with the twisted lash, and 
bending forward give full reins : the axle flies glowing with 
the impetuosity. And now low, now high, they seem to be 
borne aloft through the open air, and to mount up into the 

16 In a horse that is in good case, the back is broad, and a fulness of 
flesh near the spine is indicated, by which two ridges are formed, one at 
each side of the bone. This is what the ancients mean by a double spine. 
Valpy. 

17 Amyclaean Pollux was the son of Jupiter, by Leda, and the twin 
brother of Castor; he was so called from Amiclae, a city of Lycorjia, 
where he was born. 

18 With this sense of " currus," compare the similar Greek usage, Eur. 
Hipp. 1224, rerpupov etcfiaivwv oxov, vs. 1352, ed. Monk, and Ion, 
1151. B. 

19 This is a formula used in adducing examples. Comp. Georg. i 56 ; 
Lucr. ii. 196. Hickif. 



72 GEORGICS. e. in. 110—137. 

skies. No stop, no stay : but a thick cloud of yellow sand is 
tossed up ; the foremost are wet with the foam and breath of 
those that follow. So powerful is the love of praise, so anx- 
ious the desire of victory. 

First Erichthonius 20 dared to yoke the chariot and four 
steeds, and upon the rapid wheels victorious to stand. The 
Pelethronian Lapithae first mounted on horseback applied the 
reins, and turned him in the ring ; taught the horsemen under 
arms to spurn the plain, and with proud ambling pace to 
prance along. Either toil is equal ; with equal care the mas- 
ters in either case seek after a [steed that is] youthful, of 
warm mettle, and eager in the race : [they do not make choice 
of an old horse,] though often he may have driven before him 
the fiying foes, may boast of Epirus, or of warlike Mycenae 21 
for his country, and derive his pedigree even from Neptune's 
breed. 

These things observed, they are very careful about the time 
[of generation], and bestow all their care to plump him up 
with firm fat whom they have chosen leader, and assigned 
stallion to the herd : they cut downy herbs, and supply him 
with plenty of water and corn, that he may be adequate to 22 
the soothing toil, and lest the puny sons should declare the 
meagreness of their sires. But they purposely attenuate the 
brood mares with leanness : and, when now the known plea- 
sure solicits the first enjoyment, they both deny herbs, and 
debar them from the springs ; often too they shake them in 
the race, and tire them in the sun, when beneath the beaten 
grain the barn floor deeply groans, and in the rising zephyr 
the empty chaff is tossed about. This they do, tljat excessive 
pampering may not blunt the powers of the genial soil, and 
choke up the sluggish passages ; but that it may with eager- 
ness drink in the joys of love, and lay them up more deeply 
within. 

20 Erichthonius, a son of Vulcan, and king of Athens ; the invention 
of chariots is ascribed to him. Pelethronian Lapithae, so called from 
Pelethronium, a town of Thessaly at the foot of Mount Pelion, inhabited 
by the Lapithae, who were excellent horsemen. 

21 Mycenae, a city of Argolis in Peloponnesus, once the capital of a 
kingdom, and the residence of Agamemnon. 

22 " Superesse " is explained " praestantior esse" by the Scholiast on 
Avianus, Fab. xiii. 10, but more clearly by Gellius, i. 22, '« supra laborem 
esse, neque opprimi a labore." B. 



b. in. 138—164. GEORGICS. 73 

Again the cares of the sires begin to fail, and that of the 
dams to succeed ; when now, their months elapsed, they rove 
about pregnant : let no one suffer them to drag the yokes of 
heavy waggons, 23 or to leap across the way, scamper over the 
meads with sprightly career, and swim the rapid floods. They 
ought then to feed 24 in spacious lawns, and beside full rivers, 
where moss, and grassy banks of prime verdure, and caves 
may shelter them, and over them a shady rock project. 

About the groves of Silarus, 25 and Alburnus, verdant with 
ever-green oaks, abounds a flying thing, 26 which the Romans 
name asilus, and the Greeks in their language have rendered 
cestros ; of angry sting, humming harshly ; with which whole 
herds affrighted fly dispersed through the woods ; the sky is 
furiously shaken with bellowings, and the woods and banks of 
dry Tanagrus. With this monster did Juno once exercise 
her fell revenge, having meditated a plague for the Inachian 27 
heifer. This, too, (for in the noontide heat it rages more 
keenly,) you must keep off from the pregnant cattle ; and feed 
your herds when the sun is newly risen, or when the stars 
usher in the night. 

After the birth, the whole care is transferred to the calves ; 
and from the first they stamp with a hot iron the marks and 
names of the race ; and which they choose to bring up for the 
increase of the flock, or to keep sacred for the altar, or to 
cleave the ground, and turn up the soil all rugged with broken 
clods : the rest of the herd graze amidst the green pastures. 

Those which you would form for the design and service of 
agriculture, train up while calves, and enter on the way to 

23 Here waggons stand for any " wheeled vehicle." Hickie. 

24 Or rather, " scamper over." Heyne remarks, " proprie via carpitur 
per prata." B. 

25 Silarus, (Sele,) a river of Italy, separating Lucania from the terri- 
tory of the Picentini : its banks were much infested with the gad-fly. Al- 
burnus, a lofty mountain of Lucania, at the foot of which rises the river 
Tanagros, (Negro,) remarkable for its cascades, and its beautiful rae- 
anderings. 

26 « Volitans," as Anthon remarks, is here used ;,& b kind of substan- 
tive. Compare " volucri asilo," Valer. Flacc. hi. 581. 

27 Inachian heifer. Io, daughter of Inachus, and priefelesa of Juno at 
Argos, according to the poets, was changed into a heifer by Jupiter, but 
afterwards restored to her own form, when she married Telegonus or 
Osiris, king of Egypt, and after death was worshipped under the name 
of I sis. 



74 GEOKGIOS. s. in. 165-197 

tame them, whilst their minds in youth are tractable, while 
their age is pliant. And first fasten about their necks loose 
collars of slender twigs; next, when they have accustomed 
their free necks to servitude, match your bullocks in pairs 
joined by those same collars, and make them step together ; 
and now let empty wheels be dragged by them along the 
ground, and let them print their traces in the surface of the 
dust. Afterwards let the beechen axle labouring under a 
ponderous load creak, and the brass-girt pole draw the joined 
wheels. Meanwhile for the young untamed bullocks you will 
crop with your hand not only grass, or the tender 28 leaves of 
willows, or a marshy sedge, but also springing corn : nor shall 
your suckling heifers, as was the custom of our fathers, fill 
the snowy milking-pails, but spend all their udders on their 
sweet offspring. 

But if thy inclination is to war and martial troops, or with 
thy wheels to skim along the brink of Pisa's 29 Alphaean 
streams, and drive the flying chariot in Jupiter's grove : the 
first task of the horse must be to view the fierceness and the 
arms of warriors, to be patient of the trumpet, and to bear the 
rumbling of the wheels in their career, and in his stall to hear 
the rattling bridles ; then more and more to rejoice in the 
coaxing praises of his master, and to love the sound of his 
patted neck. 30 And these let him hear as soon as weaned 
from the udder of his dam, and now and then yield his mouth 
to the soft halters when weak, and yet trembling, and yet not 
confident in his years. But, three full years elapsed, when 
his fourth summer has arrived, let him forthwith begin to 
wheel in the ring, and with regular steps to prance ; and let 
him bend the pliant joints of his legs alternately, and seem to 
labour. Then let him dare the winds in swiftness, and 
through the open plains flying, as loosened from the reins, 
scarcely print his steps on the surface of the sand. As when 
boisterous Boreas hath rushed forth from the Hyperborean 
regions, and drives along the Scythian storms and dry clouds ; 

28 "Vescas" is interpreted by Servius, " siccas et teneras." See 
Gronov. on Liv. xxxiii. 48. intpp. on Lucret. i. 327. B. 

29 Pisa, an ancient city of Elis in Peloponnesus, o:i the banks of the 
Alpheus, and on the ruins of which Olympia is supposed to have been 
built. 

30 Silius, iv. 265, " stimulans grato plausae cervicis honore, Cornipederu 
Liloquitur." B. 



B. in. 198—235. GEORGICS. 75 

then the high corn and waving fields tremble with the gentle 
gusts, the tops of the woods rustle, and the lengthened waves 
press towards the shore : he flies, sweeping in his career at 
once the fields, at once the seas. Such a courser will either 
sweat at the goals and spacious bounds of the Elean plain, and 
drive the bloody foam from his mouth, or will better bear the 
Belgic cars on his pliant neck. Then at last, when they are 
broken, let their ample bodies grow with fattening mash ; for, 
[if full fed] before breaking them in, they will swell their 
mettle high, and when seized, refuse to bear the limber whip, 
and to obey the hard curb. 

But no industry more confirms their strength than to avert 
Yenus from them, and the stings of blind love, whether any 
one be more fond of a breed of bullocks or of horses. And 
therefore they remove the bulls to a distance, and to lonely 
pastures, behind an obstructing mountain, and beyond broad 
rivers, or keep them shut up within at full cribs ; for the fe- 
male insensibly consumes his vigour, and fires him while in 
his eye, 31 nor suffers him to mind his groves and pastures. 
Often by her sweet allurements she even impels her haughty 
lovers to combat with their horns. The beauteous heifer 
feeds in the spacious wood ; they by turns with mighty force 
engage with repeated wounds ; black blood laves their bodies ; 
and their adverse horns are impelled on the straggling foes 
with a vast groan ; the woods and spacious skies rebellow. 
Nor is it usual for the warriors to dwell together ; but the one 
vanquished retires, and becomes an exile in unknown distant 
coasts ; much and often bemoaning his disgrace, and the 
wounds of the proud victor, in fine, the loves which un- 
avenged he has lost ; and, often gazing at the stalls, departs 
from his hereditary realms. Therefore with the utmost care 
he exercises his strength, and lies all night among the hard 
rocks, on an unspread couch, feeding on prickly leaves and 
sharp rushes ; he tries himself, and learns to collect his rage 
into his horns, butting against the trunk of a tree ; dares the 
winds with blows, and preludes to the fight by spurning the 
sand. Afterwards, when his strength is rallied, and his vigour 

31 Literally, " by their beholding her." Anthc-n truly remarks, that it 
is a mistake to suppose that the gerund is used for the passive. Of. 
" cantando," Eel. viii. 71, " tegendo," Georg. hi. 454, " habendo," 
Lucret. i. 313. B. 



76 GEORGICS. b. iil 236—271 

recovered, he begins the march, 32 and is borne headlong on 
his unmindful foe ; as a wave, when it begins to whiten in 
the midst of the sea, at distance and from the deep, draws 
out its bosom, and as rolling to the land it roars dreadful 
among the rocks, nor less than very mountain falls ; while 
with whirlpools the water from the bottom boils, and tosses 
up the blackening sand on high. 

Indeed every kind on earth, both of men and wild beasts, 
the fish, the cattle, and painted birds, rush into maddening 
fires; love is in all the same. At no other time does the 
lioness, forgetful of her whelps, range the plains more fierce ; 
nor do the unshapely bears usually spread so numerous ravages 
and such havoc in the woods : then ferocious is the boar, then 
most fell the tiger. It is then, alas ! unhappy wandering in 
the desolate fields of Libya. See you not how tremour thrills 
through the horse's whole body, if his smell has but sucked 
in the well-known gales ? And now neither bridles of men, 
nor cruel whips, nor cliffs, nor hollow rocks, and opposed rivers 
that whirl with the torrent even mountains swept away, can 
retard him. Even the Sabellian boar rushes, and whets his 
tusks, and with his feet tears up the ground, rubs his flanks 
against a tree, and on this side and that side hardens his 
shoulders to wounds. What does the youth, in whose vitals 
relentless love fans the mighty fire ? Why, late in the dark- 
some night he swims the frith boisterous with bursting storms ; 
over whom the spacious gate of heaven thunders, and the seas 
dashing against the rocks remurmur ; nor can his distressed 
parents recall him, nor the maiden too, about to perish by a 
cruel fate. What do the spotted ounces of Bacchus, and the 
fierce race of wolves and dogs ? what the timorous stags ? 
what dreadful wars they wage ! Yet know, the fury of the 
mares is most of all extraordinary: and this spirit Venus 
herself inspired, when four Potnian mares tore the limb of 
Glaucus 33 to pieces with their jaws. Love drives them across 
Gargarus, and roaring Ascanius : 34 they climb the mountains, 
swim the rivers ; and forthwith, when the flame is secretly 

32 Literally, " strikes the tents." B. 

33 Glaucus, a son of Sisyphus, king of Corinth, who was torn to pieces 
at Potnia in Boeotia, by his own mares. 

34 Ascanius, afterwards called the Hylas, a river of Bithynia in Asia 
Minor, flowing into the Propontis near Cius. 



B. in. 272—306, GEORGICS. i i 

conveyed into their craving marrow, chiefly in the spring, (for 
in the spring the heat returns into their bones,) they all, with 
their mouth turned towards the Zephyr, stand on high rocks, 
and catch the gentle gales ; and often, wondrous to relate ! 
without any mate, impregnated by the wind, over rocks and 
cliffs and hollow vales they scour ; not towards thine, O Eurus, 
nor the sun's rising, nor towards Boreas and Caurus, 35 or 
whence grim Auster arises, and saddens the sky with bleak 
rain. Hence at last, what the shepherds call by its true 
name, hippomanes, a clammy poison distils from their groins ; 
hippomanes, which wicked stepdames often have gathered, 
and mixed [therewith] herbs, and not innoxious spells. But 
time flies meanwhile, flies irretrievable, while we, enamoured 
[of the theme], minutely trace particulars. 

Thus far of herds. Another part of our care remains, to 
manage the fleecy flocks and shaggy goats. A labour this ; 
hence hope for praise, ye sturdy swains. Nor am I at all 
ignorant how difficult it is to raise such subjects by style, and 
add this dignity to things so low. But the sweet love [of the 
Muses] transports me along the lonely heights of Parnassus : 
it delights me to range those mountain-tops, where no path 
trodden by the ancients winds down with gentle descent to 
Castalia. 36 

Now, adorable Pales, now must I sing in lofty strain. To 
begin, I appoint the sheep to be foddered in soft cots, till first 
the leafy spring return : and that the hard ground under 
them be strewn with plenty of straw, and with bundles of 
ferns, lest the cold ice hurt the tender flock, and bring on the 
scab, and foul foot-rot. Next, leaving them, I order to pro- 
vide the goats with leafy arbutes, and to supply them with 
fresh streams : and, away from the woods, to oppose their cots 
to the winter sun, turned towards the south: when cold 
Aquarius 37 now sets at length, and in the extremity of the 
year sheds bis dews. Nor are these to be tended by us with 
less care : nor will their usefulness be less ; though Milesian 

35 Caurus, the north-west wind; Auster, the south wind. 

54 Castalia, a celebrated fountain of Mount Parnassus, sacred to the 
Muses. 

37 Aquarius, one of the signs of the Zodiac, rises in January, and, as its 
name imports, frequently accompanied wii/a rain. 



78 GEORGICS. b. in. 307—339. 

fleeces, 38 that have drunk the Tyrian glow, be bartered for a 
great price. From these is a more numerous breed, from 
these a greater quantity of milk. The more the pail froths 
with their exhausted udder, the more will joyous streams flow 
from their pressed dugs. Meanwhile [the shepherds] also 
shear the beards, and hoary chins, and long waving hair of 
the Cinyphian 39 he-goats, for the service of the camp, and for 
coverings to the adventurous mariners. And then they find 
pasture from the woods, from the summits of Lycceus, from 
the rough brambles, and from brakes that love the craggy 
rocks. And mindful, the goats of themselves return home, 
and bring their young with them, and can scarcely get over 
the threshold with their teeming udders. Therefore, the less 
they lack the care of mortals, the more careful must you be 
to defend them from the ice and snowy winds ; and you must 
cheerfully bring them food, and browse of tender twigs ; nor 
shut up from them your stores of hay during the whole 
winter. 

But when the summer, rejoicing in the inviting Zephyrs, 
shall send forth both flocks into the lawns and pastures ; at 
the first rising of Lucifer, let us take to the cool fields ; while 
the morning is new, while the grass is hoary, and the dew, 
most grateful to the cattle, is on the tender grass. Then, as 
soon as the fourth hour of day has brought on thirst, and the 
plaintive grasshoppers shall rend the groves with their song ; 
order the flocks to drink the water running in oaken troughs, 
or at the wells, or at the deep pools ; but in the noontide heats 
seek out a shady vale, wherever Jove's stately oak with an- 
cient strength extends its huge bows, or wherever a grove, 
embrowned with thick evergreen oaks, projects its sacred 
shade. Then give them once more the translucent streams, 
and once more feed them at the setting of the sun, when cool 
Vesper tempers the air, and now the dewy moon refreshes the 
lawns, and the shores resound with Haley one, and the bushes 
with the goldfinch. 

Why should I trace for thee in song the shepherds and 

18 Milesian fleeces, from Miletus, a city of Asia Minor, the ancient 
capital of Ionia : it was famous for its excellent wood. 

39 Cinyphian he-goats, from Cinyphus, a river and country of Africa, 
near Trip o Us. 



b. in. 340—370. GEORGICS. 7 ( J 

pastures of Libya, and their huts with few and straggling 
roofs ? Their flocks often graze both day and night, and for a 
whole month together, and repair into long deserts without 
any shelter ; so wide the plain extends. The African shep- 
herd carries his all with him, his house, and household god, 
his arms, his Amyclean dog, and Cretan quiver : 40 like the 
fierce Roman, when armed for his country, he takes his way 
under the unequal load, and, having pitched his camp, stands 
in array of battle against the foe, before he is expected. 

But not so, where are the Scythian nations, and the Maeotic 
waves, 41 and the turbid Ister whirling his yellow sand ; and 
where Rhodope returns, 42 stretched out itself under the middle 
of the pole : there they keep their herds shut up in stalls ; 
nor are either any herbs to be seen in the fields, or leaves on 
the trees ; but the country lies deformed with mounts of snow, 
and deep ice all around, and rises seven ells in height. It is 
always winter, always north-west winds, blowing cold. Then 
the sun never dissipates the pale shades, either when borne on 
his steeds he climbs the lofty sky, or when he bathes his swift 
chariot in the ocean's ruddy plain. Crusts of ice suddenly 
are congealed in the running river : now on its back the wave 
sustains wheels bound with iron ; the wave hospitable to broad 
ships before, to waggons now. Yases of brass frequently burst 
asunder, their garments grow stiff when worn, they cut with 
axes the liquid wine, whole pools turn to solid ice, and the 
horrid icicle hardens on their uncombed beards. Meanwhile 
it snows incessantly through all the air ; the cattle perish ; the 
large bodies of oxen stand wrapped about with hoar frost ; and 
the deer, crowding all together, lie benumbed under the un- 

40 Cretan quiver ; Crete, (Candia,) one of the largest islands in the 
Mediterranean, at the south of the Cyclades. It was anciently famed for 
its hundred cities, and for the laws of Minos established there ; the 
Cretans were excellent archers, but infamous for falsehood and other 
vices. The island was subdued by the Romans, b. c. 66. 

41 Maeotic waves, now the Sea of Asoph, a large lake, or more properly 
part of the sea between Europe and Asia, north of the Euxine, with which 
it communicates by the Cimmerian Bosphorus. 

42 Hickie compares Georg. ii. 271, "quae terga obverterit axo," with 
the following remark : Rhodope is a chain of mountains in Thrace, which 
extends eastward, and is then joined with Haemus, and parting from it, 
returns northward." I need hardly remind the reader that Virgil is par- 
tial to assigning verbs of motion to phaenomena which only appear to 
exercise it. B. 



80 GEORGICS. b. in. 371—404 

usual load, and scarcely appear with the tips of their horns. 
These they pursue not with hounds let loose, nor with any 
toils, nor scare them with the terror of the crimson plume ; 43 
but as in vain they are shoving with their breasts the opposed 
mountain [of snow], they stab them with the sword close at 
hand, and put them to death piteously braying, and with loud 
acclamation bear them off triumphant. The inhabitants them- 
selves, in caves dug deep under ground, enjoy undisturbed 
rest, and roll to their hearths piled oaks, and whole elms, 
and give them to the flames. Here they spend the night in 
play; and joyous, imitate the juice of the grape with their 
beer and acid service. Such is that savage race of men lying 
under the northern sign of Ursa Major, buffeted by the 
Riphaean east wind, and whose bodies are clothed with the 
tawny furs of beasts. 

If the woollen manufacture be thy care ; first let prickly 
woods, and burs, and caltrops, be far away : shun rich pas- 
tures : and from the beginning choose flocks that are white 
with soft wool. And that ram, though he himself be of the 
purest white, under whose moist palate there lurks but a black 
tongue, reject, lest he should sully the fleeces of the new-born 
lambs ; and look out for another over the well-stocked field. 
Thus Pan, the god of Arcadia, (if the story be worthy of 
credit,) deceived thee, O moon, captivated with a snowy offer- 
ing of wool, inviting thee into the deep groves : nor didst 
thou scorn his invitation. 

But let him who is studious of milk, carry to the cribs with 
his own hand the cytisus, and plenty of water-lilies, and salt 
herbs. Hence [the animals] are both more desirous of the 
river, and distend their udders the more, and in their milk 
return a faint savour of the salt. 

Many restrain the kids as soon as grown up from their 
dams, and fasten muzzles with iron spikes about their snouts. 
What they milk at the sun-rising and the hour of morn, they 
press at night : what they milk now in the evening and at 
sun-setting, the shepherd at daybreak carries to town in bas- 
kets ; or they season it with a small quantity of salt, and lay 
it up for winter. 

Nor let your care of dogs be the last : but feed at once with 

43 On the " formido " here spoken of, see my note on ^En. iv. 121. B 



B, in, 406 -437. GEORG1CS, 81 

fattening whey the switt hounds of Sparta, 44 and the fierce 
mastiff of Molossis. While these are your guards, you need 
never fear the nightly robber to your stalls, the incursions of 
the wolves, or the restless Iberians 45 coming upon you by 
stealth. Often too in the chase you will pursue the timorous 
wild asses, and with hounds you will hunt the hare, with 
hounds the hinds. Often, driving on with full cry, you will 
give chase to the boar roused from his sylvan soil ; and over 
the lofty mountains with shouts pursue the stately stag into 
the toils. 

Learn also to burn fragrant cedar in the folds, and to drive 
away the rank water-snakes with the scent of galbanum. Often 
under the mangers, when not moved, either the viper of per- 
nicious touch lies concealed, and affrighted flies the light; or 
that snake, the direful pest of kine, which is wont to shelter it- 
self under a roof and shade, and shed its venom on the cattle, 
keeps close to the ground. Snatch up stones, shepherd, snatch 
up clubs ; and while he rears his threatening gorge, and swells 
his hissing neck, knock him down : and now in fright he has 
deeply hidden his dastardly head, while his middle-knots and 
the wreaths in his tail's extremity are unfolded, and his last 
tortuous joint now drags its slow spires along. There is also 
that baneful snake in the Calabrian lawns, 46 winding up his 
scaly back, with breast erect, and a long belly speckled with 
broad spots ; who, while any rivers burst from their fountains, 
and while the lands are moist with the dewy spring and rainy 
south winds, haunts the pools, and, lodging in the banks, in- 
temperate gorges his horrid maw with fishes and croaking frogs. 
When the fen is burned up, and the earth gapes with drought, 
he darts forth on dry ground, and, rolling his inflamed eyes, 
rages in the fields, exasperated with thirst, and aghast with 
heat. Let me not then choose to indulge soft slumbers in the 
open air, or to lie along the grass in the slope of a wood, when, 

44 Sparta, called also Lacedaemon, (Misitra,) a famous city of Pelopon- 
nesus in Greece, the capital of Laconia, and long the rival of Athens. 
Molossis, a district in the south of Epirus, celebrated for its fierce breed 
of dogs. 

45 Iberians, the Spaniards were so called, from Iberus, (the Ebro,) i. 
large river of Spain. 

46 Calabrian lawns. Calabria is a country in the south of Italy, ar- 
dently part of Magna Graecia. 

€ 



82 GEORGICS. b, in. 438 -473. 

renewed and sleek with youth by casting his slough, he rolls 
along, leaving either his young or eggs in his den, reared to 
the sun, and in his mouth quivers a three-forked tongue. 

I will also teach thee the causes and the signs of their dis- 
eases. The filthy scab infects the sheep, when the raw shower 
hath pierced deep into the quick, and winter, rough with hoary 
frost ; or, when the sweat unwashed away adheres to them 
after shearing, and prickly briers have torn their bodies. On 
this account, the shepherds drench the whole flock in sweet 
streams, and the ram with damp fleece is plunged into the pool, 
and sent to float along the stream ; or they besmear their bodies 
after shearing with bitter lees of oil, and mix with it litharge 
of silver, native sulphur, Idsean pitch, and fat unctuous wax, and 
the sea-leek, rank hellebore, and black bitumen. But there is 
not any more effectual remedy for their sufferings, than to lance 
the head of the ulcer with steel : the distemper is nourished 
and lives by being covered ; while the shepherd refuses to ap- 
ply the healing hand to the wound, or sits still, praying the 
gods for better omens. 

Moreover, when the malady, penetrating into the inmost 
bones of the bleating sheep, rages, and the parching fever preys 
upon their limbs, it has been of use to drive out the kindled 
inflammation, and between the under parts of the feet to open 
a vein spouting with blood ; in such manner as the Bisaltae 47 
use, and the fierce Gelonian, when he flies to Rhodope, and the 
deserts of the Getaa, and drinks milk thickened with the blood 
of horses. 

Whatever sheep thou seest either creep away at a distance 
from the rest, under the mild shade, or listlessly crop the tops 
of the grass, and follow in the rear, or lie down as she is feed- 
ing in the middle of the plain, and return by herself late in the 
evening ; forthwith check the evil by the steel, before the dire 
contagion spreads among the unwary flock. 

The whirlwind, that brings on a wintry storm, rushes not 
so frequent from the sea, as the plagues of cattle are numerous. 
Nor do diseases only sweep away single bodies, but also whole 
folds suddenly, the offspring and the flock at once, and the 

4T Bisaltae, a people of Macedonia or Thrace. Getae, a people of Eu- 
ropean Scythia, inhabiting that part of Dacia near the mouths of the Istex 
(Danube). 



a. ill. 474- 505 GEORGICS. 83 

whole stock from the first breed. Whoever views the aerial 
Alps, and the Noric castles on the hills, and the fields of Iapi- 
dian Timavus, and the realms of the shepherds even now after 
so long a time deserted, and the lawns lying waste far and 
wide, may then know this. Here, in former times, a doleful 
sweeping plague 48 arose from the distemper of the air, and 
grew more and more inflamed through the whole heat of au 
tumn ; and delivered over to death all the race of cattle, all 
the savage race ; poisoned the lakes, and tainted the pastures 
with contagion. Nor was the way of their death simple ; 49 
but when the burning fever, revelling in every vein, had 
shrunk up their wretched limbs, again the dropsical humour 
overflowed, and converted into its substance all the bones 
piecemeal consumed by the disease. Often amidst the service 
of the gods, the victim standing at the altar, while the woollen 
wreath is entwined with snowy fillet, has dropped down gasp- 
ing to death 50 in the hands of the lingering officiators. Or, if 
the priest had stabbed any one before [it fell], neither do its 
entrails, when laid on the altars, burn, nor is the augur, when 
consulted, able thence to give responses ; and the knives ap- 
plied are scarcely tinged with blood, and the surface of the 
sand hardly stained with the meagre gore. Hence the calves 
every where expire in the luxuriant pastures, and render up 
their sweet lives at the full cribs. Hence the fawning dogs are 
seized with madness ; and wheezing cough shakes the diseased 
swine, and suffocates them with tumours in the throat. The 
unfortunate horse, [once] conqueror, forgetful of his exercises 
and his pasture, pines away, loathes the springs, and often 
paws the ground with his foot ; his ears hang down ; an in- 
termitting sweat [breaks out] about them, and that too cold 
at the approach of death ; his withered skin feels hard, and 
in handling resists the touch. These symptoms they give be- 
fore death in the first days. But if in process of time the 
disease begins to rankle, then are their eyes inflamed, and the 

48 It is almost unnecessary to remind the reader that Virgil is indebted 
to Thucydides and Lucretius throughout the following description. B. 

49 Nee for et non : " And various were the forms of death." Hickie. 
M Nor was the path of death one and the same." Anthon. 

50 " Moribundus," according to Wagner, has three significations in Virgil : 
].=Moriens, Georg, iii. 488. 2.=Moriturus, Mn. iv. 323. 3.=Mortalis, 
&n. vi. 732. B. 

a 2 



84 GEORGICS. b. in. 506-644 

breath fetched from the bottom of the breast is sometimes 
mixed with a heavy groan ; and with a long sob they distend 
their lowest flanks : black blood gushes from their nostrils, 
and the rough tongue clings to their choked-up jaws. At first 
it proved of service to pour the tenaean draught down their 
throats ; this appeared the sole remedy for the dying : soon 
after, this very thing proved their destruction ; and being re- 
cruited, they burned with furious rage, and they themselves, 
now in the agonies of death (may the gods award better things 
to the good, and such frenzy to our foes !) tore their own man- 
gled limbs with their naked teeth. Lo, the bull too, smoking 
under the oppressive share, drops down, and vomits out of his 
mouth blood mingled with foam, and fetches his last groans. 
The ploughman, unyoking the steer that mourns his brother's 
death, goes away sad, and in the midst of his work leaves the 
plough fixed in the earth. Neither the shades of the deep 
groves, nor the soft meadows, can affect his mind, nor the 
river which, rolling over the rocks, glides to the plain more 
pure than amber : but his deep sides grow lank, deadness rests 
upon his heavy eyes, and his neck with unwieldy weight drops 
to the ground. What do their labours or good offices now 
avail them ? what [avails it] to have turned the heavy lands 
with the share ? Yet they were never injured by the rich 
gifts of Bacchus, or by banquets of many courses. They feed 
on leaves and the nourishment of simple herbs ; the crystal 
springs and running rivers are their drink ; and no care breaks 
their healthful slumbers. At no other time, they tell us that 
kine were wanting in those regions for Juno's sacred rites, and 
that the chariots were drawn to her lofty shrine by wild-bulls 
ill-matched. Therefore, with difficulty they tear the ground 
with harrows, and with their very nails set the corn, and over 
the high mountains drag the croaking waggons with their 
strained necks. The wolf meditates no ambuscades around 
the folds, nor prowls about the flock by night ; a sharper care 
subdues him. The timorous deer and fugitive stags saunter 
among the dogs, and about the houses. Now, too, the waves 
wash out upon the extremity of the shore the breed of the 
immense ocean, and all the race of swimmers, like shipwrecked 
bodies ; and the unwonted sea-calves fly to the rivers. The 
viper, too, in vain defended by her winding den, expires, and 



h. in. 545— 566. iv. 1—7. GEORGICS. S5 

the astonished water-snakes, erecting their scales. To the very 
birds the air becomes pernicious ; and falling headlong, they 
leave their lives beneath the lofty cloud. 

Nor, moreover, avails it now for their pasture to be changed ; 
the arts to which they had recourse prove noxious : the mas- 
ters failed, Chiron, 51 the son of Phillyra, and Melampus, the 
son of Amythaon. Pale Tisiphone, 52 sent from the Stygian 
glooms to light, rages : drives before her diseases and dismay : 
and daily rising, higher erects her baleful head. With bleat- 
ing of the flocks, and frequent lowings, the rivers, the withered 
banks, and sloping hills resound; and now by droves and 
flocks she deals destruction, and in the very stalls heaps up 
carcasses rotting away with foul contagion, till they learn to 
bury them in the ground, and hide them in pits. For neither 
was there use for their hides, nor could any cleanse their flesh 
with water, or purge it by fire ; nor durst they so much as 
shear the fleeces corrupted with disease and filthy sores, or 
touch the infected yarn. But yet, if any one tried the odious 
vestments, fiery pustules and filthy sweat overspread his 
noisome body ; and then, no long time intervening, the sacred 
fire preyed upon his infected limbs. 

BOOK IV. 

The subject of the Fourth Book is the management of bees ; their habits, 
economy, polity, and government, are described with the utmost fidelity, 
and with all the charm of poetry. The Book concludes with the beauti- 
ful episode of Aristseus recovering his bees. 

Next will I set forth the heavenly gift of a'erial honey. 
Vouchsafe, Maecenas, thy regard to this part also of my work. 1 
I will sing spectacles to you marvellous of minute things : the 
magnanimous leaders, the manners and employments, the 
tribes and battles of the whole race in order. My labour is 
upon an humble theme, but not mean the praise, if the adverse 
deities permit one, and Apollo invocated hear. 

51 Chiron, one of the Centaurs, son of Saturn and Phillyra, was famous 
for his skill in music, physic, and shooting. Melampus, a celebrated 
soothsayer and physician of Argos. 

52 Tisiphone, one of the Furies, who was the minister of Divine venge- 
ance, and punished the wicked in Tartarus. 

1 Probably in imitation of Aratus. Phaen. 29, /i©x0o£ fikv r 3 oXiyoc, to 
dl uvptov avTiK ovtiap* TV. 



86 GEORGTCS. 



b. iv. 8 — 42 



First, a seat and station must be sought for the bees, where 
neither winds may have access, (for the winds hinder them 
from carrying home their food,) nor sheep and frisky kids 
may trample down the flowers, or heifer, straying in the plain, 
spurn off the dews, and bruise the rising herbs. 

And let the lizards with speckled scaly backs be far from 
the rich hives, and woodpeckers, and other birds ; and Progne, 2 
whose breast is stained with her bloody hands. For they lay 
all things waste around, and in their mouths bear away the 
bees themselves while on the wing, a sweet morsel for their 
merciless young. But let clear springs, and pools edged with 
green moss, be near, and a gentle rivulet swiftly running 
through the meads ; and let a palm or stately wild olive over- 
shade the entrance : that, when the new kings lead forth the 
first swarms in their own spring, and the youth, issuing from 
the hives, indulge in sport, the neighbouring bank may invite 
them to withdraw from the heat, and the tree just in their 
way may receive them with its leafy shelter. Into the midst 
of the water, whether it stagnates idle or purling runs, throw 
willows across, and huge stones, that they may rest upon 
frequent bridges, and spread their wings to the summer sun, 
if the impetuous east wind has by chance dispersed those that 
lag behind, or immersed them in the flood. Around these 
places let green cassia, and far-smelling wild thyme, and 
plenty of strong-scented savory, flower ; and let beds of 
violet drink an irrigating 3 fountain. 

But as for your hives themselves, whether they be compacted 
of hollow bark, or woven with limber osier, let them have their 
inlets narrow ; for winter congeals the honey with its cold, 
and the heat melts and dissolves the same: either force is 
equally dreaded by the bees : nor is it in vain that they smear 
with wax 4 the slender crevices in their houses, and fill up the 
edges with fucus and flowers, and preserve for those very uses 
collected glue, more tenacious than bird-lime, or the pitch of 
Phrygian Ida. 5 Often, too, if fame be true, they have 

2 Progne, the wife of Tereus, king of Thrace, Avas feigned to have 
been changed into a swallow. See note 23 on Eel. 6. 

3 Observe the active force of " irriguos." B. 

4 i. e. propolis. See Anthon. 

5 Phrygian Ida, a celebrated mountain, or ridge of mountains, in the 
vicinity of Troy, covered with pine trees, &c, and commanding an ex- 
tensive view of the Hellespont and the adjacent countries. From Mount 



r. iv. 4a— 77. GE0RG1CS. 87 

cherished their families in cells dug under ground, and have 
been found deep down in hollow pumice-stones, and the cavity 
of a rotten tree. But do thou, carefully cherishing, daub 
their chinky chambers round with smooth mud, and strew it 
thinly over with leaves ; and suffer not a yew near their 
lodges, nor burn in the fire the reddening crabs, nor trust 
them to a deep fen, or where there is a noisome smell of mire, 
or where the hollow rocks resound on being struck, and the 
struck image of the voice rebounds. 

For what remains, when the golden sun has driven the 
winter under ground, and opened the heavens with summer 
light ; they forthwith traverse the lawns and woods, crop the 
bright-hued flowers, and lightly skim the surface of the streams. 
Hence, gladdened with I know not what agreeable sensation, 
they grow fond of their offspring and young breed : hence 
they labour out with art new waxen cells, and form the 
clammy honey. After this, when now you see the swarm, 
after emerging from the hives into the open air, swim through 
the serene summer sky, and marvel at the blackening cloud 
driven about by the wind, mark well : they always seek the 
waters and leafy coverts : here sprinkle the juices prescribed, 
bruised balm and the common herb of honey-wort : awake the 
tinkling sounds, and beat around the cymbals of the mother. 6 
They of themselves will settle on the medicated seats ; they 
of themselves, after their manner, will retreat into the in- 
most cells. 

But if they should go forth to battle, (for often discord with 
huge commotion seizes two kings,) you may straightway 
know long before -hand both the animosity of the populace, 
and their hearts in trepidation for war : for that martial clang 
of hoarse brass rouses the loiterers, and a voice is heard re- 
sembling the broken sounds of trumpets. Then in a hurry 
they assemble, quiver with their wings, sharpen their stings 
upon their beaks, prepare their sinews, crowd thick around 
their king and to his pavilion, and with loud hummings chal- 
lenge the foe. 

As soon, therefore, as they find the spring serene, and the 

Ida issued/the Simois, Scamander, and other rivers, and here it was that 
Paris adjudged the prize of beauty to the goddess Venus. 

8 Cybele, called the Mother of the Gods, was the daughter of Ccelus 
Lud Terra, and wife of Saturn. Davidson. 



88 GEORGICS b. iv. 78—113. 

fields of air open, forth they rush from their gates; they join 
battle : buzzing sounds arise in the sky aloft : mingled they 
cluster in a mighty round, and fall headlong : hail rains not 
thicker from the air, nor such quantities of acorns from the 
shaken oak. The kings themselves amidst the hosts, distin- 
guished by their wings, exert mighty souls in little bodies ; 
obstinately determined not to yield till the dread victor has 
compelled either these or those to turn their backs in flight. 
These commotions of their minds, and this so mighty fray, 
checked by the throw of a little dust, will cease. 

But when you have recalled both leaders from the battle, 
put him to death that appears the worse, lest by prodigality 
he do hurt ; and suffer the braver to reign in the court with- 
out a rival. The one will glow with refulgent spots of gold ; 
for there are two sorts : this is the better, distinguishable both 
by his make, and conspicuous with glittering scales: the 
other is horribly deformed with sloth, and ingloriously drags 
a large belly. 

As the kings are of two figures, so are the bodies of their 
people. 7 For the one looks hideously ugly ; as when a 
parched traveller comes from a very dusty road, and spits the 
dirt out of his dry mouth : the others shine and sparkle with 
brightness, glittering with gold, and their bodies spangled 
with equal drops. This is the better breed : from these at 
stated season of the sky you will press the luscious honey ; 
yet not so luscious as pure, and fit to correct the hard relish 
of the grape. 

But when the roving swarms fly about and sport in the air, 
disdain their hives, and leave the cold habitations, you will 
restrain their unsettled minds from their vain play. Nor is 
there great difficulty in restraining them : do you but clip the 
wings of their kings ; not one will dare, while they stay be- 
hind, to fly aloft, or pluck up the standard from the camp. 

Let gardens fragrant with saffron flowers invite them ; and 
the protection of Hellespontaic Priapus, the averter of thieves 
and birds, with his willow scythe preserve them. Let him 
who makes such things his care, himself bring thyme and 
pines from the high mountains, to plant them far and wide 

T This, like many other of Virgil's statements respecting bees, is er- 
roneous. The reader will find much information in Anthon's entertain- 
ing notes. B. 



B. iv. 114—146 GEORGICS. 89 

about their hives: let him wear his hands with the hard 
labour, set himself the fruitful plants in the ground, and water 
them with kindly showers. 

And indeed, were I not just furling my sails at the last 
period of my labours, and hastening to turn my prow to land, 
perhaps I might both sing what method of culture would 
adorn rich gardens, and the rose-beds of twice blooming 
Paestum ; 8 and how endive and banks green with parsley de- 
light in drinking the rills ; and how the cucumber winding 
along the grass swells into a belly : nor had I passed in silence 
the late-flowering daffodil, or the stalks of the flexile acanthus, 
or the pale ivy, and the myrtles that love the shores. For I 
remember that, under the lofty turrets of CEbalia, 9 where 
black Galsesus 10 moistens the yellow fields, I saw an old 
Corycian, 11 to whom belonged a few acres of neglected land; 
nor was that soil rich enough for the plough, proper for flocks, 
or commodious for vines. Yet here among the bushes, plant- 
ing a few pot-herbs, white lilies, vervain, and esculent poppies 
all around, he equalled in disposition the wealth of kings ; 
and returning late at night, loaded his board with unbought 
dainties. He was the first to gather the rose in spring, and 
fruits in autumn ; and, even when sad winter split the rocks 
with cold, and bridled up the current of the rivers with ice, 
in that very season he was cropping the locks of the soft 
acanthus, chiding the late summer, and the lingering zephyrs. 

He, therefore, was the first to abound with pregnant bees 
and numerous swarms, and to strain the frothing honey from 
the pressed combs : he had limes and pines in great abund- 
ance ; and as many fruits as the fertile tree had been clothed 
with in early blossoms, so many it retained ripe in autumn. 
He too transplanted into rows the late [far-grown] elms, and 
hard pear-trees, and sloe-trees now bearing damascenes, and 
the plane now ministering shade to drinkers. But these I for 

8 Paestum, (Pesto,) a town of Lucania, on the Gulf of Salerno, where 
the roses blossom twice a year. 

9 CEbalia, Tarentum, in the south of Italy, was so called because built 
by a colony under Phalanthus, who came from CEbalia, or Laconia, in 
Greece. Galsesus, a river of Calabria, flowing into the Bay of Tarentum. 

10 Cf. " umbrosus Galsesus," Propert. ii. 25, 67. B. 

11 Corycius, a contented old man of Tarentum, whose time was employed 
in taking care of his bees. Some suppose that by Corycius, Virgil meant 
a native of Corycus, (a town of Cilicia,) who had settled in Italy. 



90 GEOHGICS. b. iv. i47—177. 

my pait pass over, restrained by the narrow bounds I have 
prescribed to myself, and leave to others hereafter to record. 

Come, now, I will unfold the qualities which Jupiter him- 
self has implanted in the bees ; for which reward accompany- 
ing the shrill sounds and tinkling brass of the Curetes, 12 they 
fed the king of heaven under the Dictasan cave. They alone 
have their offspring in common, share the buildings of a city 
in common, and pass their lives under powerful laws ; and 
they alone have a country of their own, and a fixed abode. 
And, mindful of the coming winter, they experience toil in 
summer, and lay up their acquisitions into the common stock. 
For some are provident for food, and by fixed compact are 
employed in the fields ; some within the enclosure of their 
hives lay Narcissus' 13 tears, and clammy gum from bark of 
trees, for the first foundation of the combs, then build down- 
wards the viscid wax ; others bring up to their full growth 
the young, the hope of the nation ; others condense the purest 
honey, and distend the cells with liquid nectar. Some there 
are to whose lot has fallen the watching at the gates, and 
these by turns observe the waters and clouds of heaven ; or 
receive the loads of those who return; or, forming a band, 
drive from the hives the drones, a sluggish horde. The work 
is warmly plied, and the honey smells fragrant of thyme. 

And as when the Cyclops urge on the thunderbolts from 
the stubborn masses, some receive and render back the air in 
the bull-hide bellows ; some dip the sputtering brass in the 
trough : JEtna groans under the weight of their anvils : they 
alternately with vast force lift their arms in time, and turn 
the iron with the griping pincers. Just so, if we may compare 
small things with great, the innate love of gain prompts the 
Cecropian bees, 14 each in his proper function. The elder have 

12 Curetes, or Corybantes, the priests of Cybele, who inhabited Mount 
Ida in Crete ; they were intrusted with the education of the infant Jupi- 
ter, and to prevent his being discovered by his father, who sought to de- 
stroy him, they invented a kind of dance, and drowned his cries by the 
noise of their cymbals. 

13 Narcissus, a beau tiful youth, who, on seeing his image reflected in 
a fountain, became enamoured of it, thinking it to be the nymph of the 
place. He died of grief, and was changed into a flower, which still bears 
his name. 

14 Cecropian bees, that is, Attic or Athenian bees, from Cecrops, the 
iounder and first king of Athens. 



b. iv. 178—212. GEORGICS. 91 

the care of their towns, and to fortify the combs, and frame 
the artificial cells. But the younger return fatigued late at 
night, their thighs laden with thyme ; they feed at large on 
arbutes, and grey willows, on cassia, and glowing crocus, on 
the gummy lime, and deep-coloured hyacinths. All have one 
rest from work, all one common labour. In the morning they 
r rush out of the gates without any delay. Again, when the 
evening at length has warned them to return from feeding in 
the fields, then they seek their habitations, and then refresh 
their bodies : the hum arises, and they buzz about the borders 
and entrance of their hives. Soon after, when they have 
composed themselves in their cells, all is hushed for the night ; 
and their proper sleep seizes their weary limbs. Nor do they 
remove to a great distance from their hive when rain im- 
pends, or trust the sky when east winds approach ; but in 
safety supply themselves with water all around under the 
walls of their city, and attempt but short excursions ; and 
often take up little stones, as unsteady vessels do ballast in a 
tossing sea; with these they poise themselves through the 
void airy regions. 

Chiefly you will marvel at this custom peculiar to the bees, 
that they neither indulge in conjugal embrace, nor softly dis- 
solve their bodies in the joys of love, nor bring forth young 
with a mother's throes. But they themselves cull their pro- 
geny with their mouths from leaves and fragrant herbs : they 
themselves raise up a new king and little subjects, and build 
new palaces and waxen realms. 

Often, too, in wandering among the flinty rocks, have they 
torn their wings, and voluntarily yielded up their lives under 
their burden : so mighty is their love for flowers, and such 
their glory in making honey. Therefore, though a narrow 
term of life is their lot, (for it is not prolonged beyond the 
seventh summer,) yet the race remains immortal, and through 
many years the fortune of the family subsists, and grandsires 
of grandsires are numbered. 

Besides, not Egypt's self, nor great Lydia, 15 nor the nation 
of the Parthians, nor Median Hydaspes, are so observant of 
their king. Whilst the king is safe, there is one mind among 

15 Lydia, a country of Asia Minor, south of Mysia, now part of Ana- 
tolia. Hydaspes, a river of Persia, supposed to be the Choaspes, or the 
Araxes. 



92 GEORGICS. b. iv. 213—245. 

all : when he is dead, they sever their allegiance ; they them- 
selves tear to pieces the fabric of their honey, and demolish 
the structure of their combs. He is the guardian of their 
works: him they admire, and all encircle him with thick 
humming, and guard him in a numerous body ; often they lift 
him up on their shoulders, expose their bodies in war, and 
through wounds seek a glorious death. 

From these appearances, and led by these examples, some 
have alleged that a portion of the divine mind, and a heavenly 
emanation, may be discovered in bees ; for that the Deity 
pervades the whole earth, the tracts of sea, and depth of hea- 
ven ; that hence the flocks, the herds, men, and all the race 
of beasts, each at its birth, derive their slender lives. Ac- 
cordingly, [they affirm] that all of them, when dissolved, re- 
turn and are brought back thither hereafter ; nor is there any 
room for death ; but that they mount up alive each into his 
proper order of star, and take their seat in the high heaven. 

When you intend to rifle the narrow mansions [of the 
bees], and their honey preserved in their treasures, first, 
sprinkled [as to your body], 16 gargle your mouth with a 
draught of water, and bear in your hand before you the search- 
ing smoke. Twice they press the teeming cells ; there are 
two seasons of that harvest ; one, as soon as the Pleiad Tay- 
gete 17 has displayed her comely face to the earth, and spurns 
with her foot the despised waters of the ocean ; or when the 
same star, flying the constellation of the watery Fish, descends 
in sadness from the sky into the wintry wave3. They are 
wrathful above measure, and when provoked, breathe venom 
into their stings, and leave their hidden darts fixed in the 
veins, and lay down their lives in the wound. 

If, however, fearing 18 a hard winter, you both be sparing 
for the future, and have pity on their drooping spirits and 
shattered state ; yet who will hesitate to fumigate [their hives] 
with thyme, and cut away the empty wax? for often the 
lizard preys unseen upon the combs, and the cells are stuffed 
with cockroaches that shun the light ; the drone also that sits 
exempt from duty at another's repast, or the fierce hornet has 

16 See Anthon's note. B. 

17 Taygete, a daughter of Atlas and Pleione, who became one of the 
Pleiades after death. 

19 The older editions read " metues." B. 



B. iv. 245—282. GEORGICS. ^3 

engaged them with unequal arms ; or the moth's direful 
breed; or the spider, hateful to Minerva, has suspended her 
loose nets in their gates. 

The more they are exhausted, the more vigorously will 
they all labour to repair the ruins of their decayed race, to fill 
up the rows of cells, and weave their magazines of flowers. 
But since life has on bees too entailed our misfortunes, if 
their bodies shall languish with a sore disease, which you may 
know by undoubted signs ; immediately the sick change 
colour ; horrid leanness deforms the countenance : then they 
carry the bodies of the dead out of their houses, and lead the 
mournful funeral processions ; or clinging together by the feet, 
hang about the entrance, and loiter all within their houses 
shut up, both listless through famine, and benumbed with 
contracted cold. Then a hoarser sound is heard, and in 
drawling hums they buzz ; as at times the south wind mur- 
murs through the woods ; as the ruffled sea creaks hoarsely 
with refluent waves ; as rapid fire in the pent furnace roars. 
In this case now I would advise to burn gummy odours, and 
to put in honey through pipes of reed, kindly tempting and 
inviting the enfeebled bees to their known repast. It will be 
of service also to mix with it the juice of pounded galls, and 

j dried roses, or inspissated must 19 thickened over a strong fire, 
or raisins from the Psythian vine, Cecropian thyme, and 
strong-smelling centaury. There is also in the meadows a 
flower, to which the husbandmen have given the name of 
amellus; an herb easy to be found; for from one root it 
shoots a vast luxuriance of stalks, itself of golden hue ; but on 
the leaves, which are spread thickly around, the purple of the 
dark violet sheds a gloss. The altars of the gods are often 
decked with plaited wreaths [of this flower]. Its taste is 
bitterish in the mouth : the shepherds gather it in new-shorn 
valleys, and near the winding streams of Mella. 20 Boil the 
roots thereof in fragrant wine ; and present it as food [for the 
bees] in full baskets at their door. 

But if the whole stock should suddenly fail any one, and 

! he should have no means to recover a new breed ; it is time 

is " When must was inspissated to one-half, it acquired the name of 
defrutum." Anthon. 

20 Mella, a small river of Cisalpine Gaul, falling into the Ollius, anc 
with it into the Po. 



94 GEORGICS. b. iv. 283—317. 

both to unfold the memorable invention of the Arcadian mas- 
ter, and how the tainted gore of bullocks slain has often pro- 
duced bees : I will disclose the whole tradition, tracing it high 
from its first source. For where the happy nation of Pellaean 
Canopus 21 inhabit the banks of the Nile, ^floating [the plains] 
with his overflowing river, and sail around their fields in 
painted gondolas ; and where the river, that rolls down as far 
as from the swarthy Indians, presses on the borders of quivered 
Persia, and fertiles verdant Egypt with black silt, and pouring 
along divides itself into seven different mouths ; all the coun- 
try grounds infallible relief on this art. First a space of 
ground of small dimensions, and contracted for this purpose, 
is chosen ; this they strengthen with the tiling of a narrow 
roof and confined walls ; and add four windows of slanting 
light in the direction of the four winds. Then a bullock, just 
bending the horns in his forehead two years old, is sought out : 
whilst he struggles exceedingly, they close up both his nostrils, 
and the breath of his mouth ; and when they have beaten him 
to death, his battered entrails are crushed within the hide that 
remains entire. When dead, they leave him pent up, and lay 
under his sides fragments of boughs, thyme, and fresh cassia. 
This is done when first the zephyrs stir the waves, before the 
meadows blush with new colours, before the chattering swal- 
low suspend her nest upon the rafters. Meanwhile the juices, 
warmed in the tender veins, ferment : and animals, wonderful 
to behold, first short of their feet, and in a little while buzzing 
with wings, swarm together, and more and more take to the 
thin air : till they burst away like a shower poured down from 
summer clouds ; or like an arrow from the whizzing string, 
when the swift Parthians first begin the fight. 

What god, ye Muses, what god disclosed to us this art ? 
whence took this new experience of men its rise ? 

The shepherd Aristaeus, 22 flying from Peneian Tempe, 23 

tl Canopus, (near Aboukir,) a city of Egypt, 12 miles east from Alex- 
andria. It is here called Pellaean, having been founded by a colony from 
Pella, a city of Macedonia, or in allusion to the conquest of the country 
by Alexander the Great, who was born at I^ella. 

22 Aristasus was the son of Apollo and Cyrene. He became enamoured 
of Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, and was the first who taught mankind 
the culture of olives, and the management of bees ; after death he was 
worshipped as a god. 

* Peneian Tempe, a celebrated vale in Thessaly, between Mount Olym- 



b. iv. 318-350. GEORGICS. 95 

having lost his bees, as it is said, by disease and famine, stood 
mournful by the sacred source of the rising river, much and 
oft complaining : and with these accents addressed his parent : 
Mother Cyrene, mother, who inhabitest the depth of this 
flood, why hast thou brought me forth of the illustrious race 
of gods, (if indeed, as you pretend, Thymbraean Apollo be my 
sire,) thus abhorred by destiny ? or whither is thy love for me 
banished? why didst thou bid me hope for heaven? Lo, I, 
though thou art my mother, am even bereft of this very glory 
of my mortal life, which, amidst my watchful care of flocks 
and agriculture, I, after infinite essays, with much difficulty 
achieved. Why then, go on ; root up with thine own hands 
my happy groves ; bear the hostile flame into my stalls, and 
kill my harvests ; burn up my plantations, and wield the 
sturdy bill against my vineyards ; if such strong aversion to 
my praise hath seized thee. 

But his mother heard the sound beneath the chambers of 
the deep river ; her nymphs around her were carding the Mile- 
sian fleeces, dyed with rich glass-green tincture ; Drymo 24 and 
Xantho, Ligea and Phyllodoce, their comely hair flowing down 
their snow-white necks ; Nescaee and Spio, Thalia and Cy- 
modoce, Cydippe and golden Lycorias ; the one a virgin, the 
other just experienced in the first labours of Lucina; Clio, 
and her sister Beroe, both daughters of Oceanus, both in gold, 
both in spotted skins arrayed ; Ephyre and Opis, and Asian 
Deiopeia ; and swift Arethusa, having at length laid her darts 
aside : among whom Clymene was relating Vulcan's unavail- 
ing care, the tricks and pleasant thefts of Mars, and recounted 
the frequent amours of the gods down from Chaos. Whilst 
the nymphs, charmed with this song, wind off their soft task 
from the spindles, the lamentations of Aristaeus again struck 
his mother's ears, and all were amazed in their crystal beds : 

pus and Ossa, through, which the river Peneus flows into the Mgea.n. 
Tempe was about five miles in length, but very narrow, in few places 
above a quarter of a mile broad. The ancient poets have described it as 
one of the most delightful spots in the world ; hence all valleys that are 
pleasant are by the poets called Tempe. Thymbra, a plain in Troas, 
through which the river Thymbrius flowed in its course to the Scaman- 
der. Apollo had there a temple, and thence it is called Thymbraean. 

24 Drymo, &c. These were sea-nymphs, the attendants of Cyrene, 
daughter of the river Peneus, who was carried by Apollo to that part of 
Africa which was called Cyrenaica, where she became the mother of 
Aristae us. 



I 



96 GEORGICS. b. iv. 361—378. 

but Arethusa upreared her golden head before her other sis- 
ters, darting her eyes abroad ; and afar [she cried], O sister 
Cyrene, not in vain alarmed with such piteous moaning, thy 
own Aristaeus, overwhelmed with sorrow, thy darling care, 
stands weeping by the water of Peneus thy sire, and calls 
thee cruel by name. To her the mother, her soul seized with 
unusual concern, cries, Conduct, conduct him quickly to us : 
to him it is permitted to tread the courts of the gods. At 
the same time she commands the deep floods to divide on all 
sides, that the youth might make his approach. And the 
water, bent into the shape of a mountain, stood round about 
him, received him into its ample bosom, and let him pass un- 
der the river. And now admiring his mother's palace, and 
humid realms, the lakes pent up in caverns, and the sounding 
groves, he passed along, and amazed at the vast motion of the 
waters, surveyed all the rivers gliding under the great earth in 
different places ; Phasis 25 and Lycus, and the source whence 
deep Enipeus first bursts forth, whence father Tiberinus, 26 
and whence Anio's 27 streams, and Hypanis 28 roaring down 
the rocks, and Mysian Caicus, and Eridanus, his bull-front 
decked with two gilt horns, than whom no river pours along 
the fertile fields with greater violence into the dark, trou- 
bled 29 sea. 

After he had arrived under the roof of her bed-chamber, 
hung with pumice-stones, Cyrene was informed of the vain la- 
mentations of her son, the sisters in order serve up the crystal 
streams for the hands, and bring smooth towels. Some load 
the board with viands, and plant the full cups. The altars 

25 Phasis, (Phaz or Rhion,) a river of Colchis, rising in Mount Cauca- 
sus, and falling into the Euxine. Lycus, a river of Armenia. Enipeus, 
a river of Thessaly, falling into the Peneus. 

26 Tiber, a celebrated river of Italy, on whose banks the city of Rome 
was built. It was originally called Albula, from the whiteness of its 
waters, and afterwards Tiber, from Tiburinus, king of Alba, who was 
drowned in it. The Tiber rises in the Apennines, and, after dividing La- 
tium from Etruria, falls into the Mediterranean 16 miles below Rome. 

27 Anio, (Teverone,) a river of Italy which falls into the Tiber. 

28 Hypanis, (Bog,) a river of European Scythia, which runs into the 
Euxine. Caicus, (Grimakli,) a river of Mysia, falling into the JEge&n. 

29 Compare Anthon, who observes, " We have preferred rendering 
purpureum here by a double epithet. It is analogous to the Greek ttojO- 
^vptoc, as said of the troubled sea, whence f3iog iroptyvpovg OaXaamoc, 
" & seaman's troublous life." 



a. iv. 379-413. GEORGICS. 97 

blaze with Panchnsan fires. Then the mother thus speaks : 
Take bowls of Maeonian wine, let us offer a libation to Ocean. 
At the same time she herself addresses Ocean, the parent of 
things, and the sister nymphs, a hundred of whom preside over 
woods, a hundred over rivers. Thrice she sprinkled glowing 
Vesta with the liquid nectar : thrice the flame, mounting to 
the top of the roof, brightened : with which omen encouraging 
her soul, she thus begins : In Neptune's Carpathian gulf there 
dwells a seer, coerulean Proteus, 30 who measures the great sea 
with fishes, and in a chariot yoked with two-legged steeds. 
He now revisits the ports of Emathia and his native Pal- 
lene : 31 him both we nymphs, and old Nereus 32 himself adore ; 
for the prophet knows all things that are, that have been, and 
what is being drawn on as about to be. For such is the will 
of Neptune ; whose unwieldy droves, and ugly sea-calves, he 
feeds under the deep. He, my son, must first be surprised 
with chains, that he may explain to you the whole cause of 
the disease, and make the issue prosperous. For no instruct 
tions will he give without compulsion, nor can you move him 
hy entreaty : ply him, when taken, with rigid force and 
chains: all his tricks to evade these, proving vain, will at 
length be baffled. I myself, as soon as the sun has inflamed 
► his noon-tide heats ; when the herbs thirst, and the shade be- 
comes more grateful to the cattle, will conduct you into the 
old god's retreats, whither he retires from the waves when fa- 
tigued ; that you may easily assail him overpowered with 
sleep. But when you shall hold him fast confined within 
your arms and chains, then various forms and features of wild 
beasts will mock your grasp. For suddenly he will become a 
bristly boar, a fell tiger, a scaly dragon, and a lioness with a 
tawny mane : or he will emit the roaring of flame, and escape 
the chain ; or, liquefied into fluid waters, glide away. But the 
more he shall transform himself into all shapes, still closer 
draw, my son, the hampering chains, till, rechanged, he shall 

30 Proteus, a sea-deity, son of Oceanus and Tethys. He is represented 
by the poets as usually residing in the Carpathian Sea between Crete and 
Rhodes : he possessed the gift of prophecy, and also the power of as- 
suming different shapes. 

31 Pallene, a small peninsula of Macedonia, on the ^Egean Sea. 

32 Nereus, a sea-g6d, son of Oceanus and Terra, and husband of Doris 
by whom he had fifty daughters, the Nereids 

K 



98 GEORGICS u. iv. 414—452. 

become such as you saw him when he closed his eyes in sleep 
commenced. She spoke ; and shed around the liquid odour of 
ambrosia, wherewith she sprinkled over the whole body of her 
son. Now from his trimmed locks a delicious fragrance 
breathed, and active vigour was infused into his limbs. In the 
side of a hollowed mountain is a spacious cave, whither many 
a wave is driven by the wind, and divides itself into receding 
curves ; at times a station most secure for weather-beaten 
mariners. Within Proteus hides himself behind the barrier of 
a huge rock. Here the nymph places the youth in ambush re- 
mote from view ; she herself takes her station at a distance, 
shrouded in a misty cloud. Now the sultry dog-star, scorch- 
ing the thirsty Indians, blazed in the sky, and the fiery sun 
had finished half his course : the herbs withered ; and the rays 
made the shallow over-heated rivers boil, their channels being 
drained to their slimy bottom ; when Proteus, repairing to his 
accustomed den, advanced from the waves. The watery race 
of the vast ocean, gamboling around him, scatter the briny 
spray far and near. The sea-calves apart lay themselves 
down to sleep along the shore. He himself (as at times the 
keeper of a fold upon the mountains, when evening brings 
home the bullocks from the pasture, and the lambs with noisy 
bleatings whet the hunger of the wolves) sits in the centre on 
a rock, and counts over their numbers. Of [seizing] whom 
since so favourable an opportunity offered itself to Aristaeus, 
scarcely suffering the aged god to compose his weary limbs, he 
rushes upon him with a great shout, and surprises him with 
chains reclining. He, on the other hand, not forgetful of his 
art, transforms himself into all the wondrous shapes in nature ; 
fire, and a fierce savage, and flowing river. But when no 
shifts could find him an escape, overpowered he returned to 
himself, and at length thus spoke in human accent: Who, 
most presumptuous youth, enjoined thee (he said) to approach 
my habitation ? or what demandest thou here ? But he [re- 
plied], Thou knowest, O Proteus, thou knowest of thyself; 
nor is it in any one's power to deceive thee : but do thou cease 
to try [to escape me]. In pursuance of divine command, I 
come hither to consult thy oracle about my ruined affairs. 
Thus much he spoke. Then the prophet at length, with 
mighty force, rolled his eyes flashing with azure light, and 
gnashing his teeth fiercely, thus opened his mouth to disclose 



u. iv. 453—485. GEORGICS. 99 

the Fates : It is the vengeance of no mean deity that pursues 
thee : thou art making atonement for heinous crimes : these 
sufferings, by no means proportioned to thy guilt, unhappy 
Orpheus entails upon thee, unless the Fates oppose ; and he 
sorely rages for his ravished queen. She indeed, rushing 
headlong along the river's bank, provided she could only 
escape thee, the maid doomed to death saw not the hideous 
water-snake before her feet, guarding the banks in the tall 
grass. But her fellow choir of Dryads filled the highest 
mountains with shrieks : the rocks of Rhodope wept ; so did 
lofty Pangsea, 33 and the martial land of Rhesus, the Getae, and 
Hebrus, and attic Orithyia. Orpheus 34 himself, soothing the 
anguish of his love with his concave shell, sang of thee, sweet 
spouse, of thee by himself on the lonely shore ; thee when the 
day arose, thee when the day declined, he sang. He entering 
even the jaws of Tsenarus, Pluto's gates profound, and the 
grove overcast with gloomy horror, visited the Manes, and 
their tremendous king, and hearts unknowing to relent at 
human prayers. But the airy shades, and phantoms of the 
dead, moved at his song, stalked forth from the deep re- 
cesses of Erebus, 35 in such throngs, as birds that shelter 
themselves by thousands in the woods, when evening, or a 
wintry shower, drives them from the mountains ; matrons, and 
men, and ghosts of gallant heroes deceased, boys and unmarried 
virgins, and youths laid on the funeral piles before the faces 
of their parents ; whom the black mud and unsightly reeds 
of Cocytus, and the unlovely lake with sluggish wave, enclose 
around, and Styx, nine times poured between, confines. The 
very habitations and deepest dungeons of death were aston- 
ished, and the Furies, with whose hair blue snakes were inter- 
woven ; and yawning Cerberus repressed his three mouths ; 
and the whirling of Ixion's wheel was suspended by the song. 
And now retracing his way, he had overpaid all dangers ; 

33 Pangsea, a mountain on the confines of Macedonia and Thrace. 

34 Orpheus was feigned by the poets to have descended into the infernal 
regions to recover his wife Eurydice, when he so charmed Pluto and 
Proserpine with the music of his lyre, that they consented to restore her, 
provided he forbore looking behind until he had gained the upper re- 
gions ; but he forgot his promise, and his Eurydice instantly vanished. 

35 Erebus, a god of hell ; often used to signify hell itself. Cerberus, 
represented as a dog with three heads, that watched the entrance into thv 
infernal regions. 

k 2 



100 GEORGICS. b. iv. 486—521 

and restored Eurydice was just approaching the regions above, 
following him ; for Proserpina had given him that law ; when 
a sudden frenzy seized the unwary lover, pardonable, indeed, 
if the Manes knew to pardon. He stopped, and on the very 
verge of light, ah ! unmindful, and not master of himself, 
looked back on his Eurydice : there was all his labour wasted, 
and the law of the relentless tyrant broken ; and thrice a dis- 
mal groan was heard through the Avernian lake. Orpheus, 
she says, who hath both unhappy me and thee undone : what 
so great frenzy is this ? see once more the cruel Fates call me 
back, and sleep closes my swimming eyes. And now fare- 
well : I am snatched away, encompassed with thick night, and 
stretching forth to thee my feeble hands ! ah, thine no more. 
She spoke ; and suddenly fled from his sight a different way, 36 
like smoke blended with the thin air : nor more was seen by 
him grasping the shades in vain, and wishing to say a thou- 
sand things ; nor did the ferryman of hell suffer him again to 
cross the intervening fen. What should he do? whither 
should he turn himself, his love twice snatched away ? with 
what tears move the Manes, with what words the gods ? She 
already cold was sailing in the Stygian boat. For seven whole 
months, it is said, he mourned beneath a weather-beaten rock, 
by the streams of desert Strymon, and unfolded these his woes 
under the cold caves, softening the very tigers, and leading 
the oaks with his song : as mourning Philomel under a poplar 
shade bemoans her lost young, which the hard-hearted clown 
observing in the nest has stolen unfledged ; but she weeps 
through the night, and, perched upon a bough, renews her 
doleful song, and fills the places all around with piteous wait- 
ings. No loves, no hymeneal joys, could bend his soul. Alone 
he traversed the Hyperborean tracts of ice, the snowy Tanais, 
and fields never free from Riphsean frosts, deploring his rav- 
ished Eurydice, and Pluto's useless gifts ; for which despised 
rite 37 the Ciconian matrons, amidst the sacred service of the 

36 I have always felt dissatisfied with this participle " diversa," al- 
though, I believe, Servius and all MSS. support it. I think "dilapsa" is 
more Virgilian. Cf. Georg. iv. 410. So Lucan, in an evident imitation of 
this passage, iii. 34, " Sic fata, refugit Umbra per amplexus trepidi dilapsa 
mariti." So " delapsa," Ovid, Art. Am. i. 43 ; " relapsa," Met. x. 57. B. 

37 The attempts to explain this passage are confessedly hopeless. See 
Anthon. " Munere " probably arose from a gloss upon the preceding 
*' dona." Can " quo nomina " (= on what pretext) be the true reading ? B 






b. iv. 521-559. GEORGICS. iOI 

gods and nocturnal orgies of Bacchus, having torn the youth 
in pieces, scattered his limbs over the wide fields. And even 
then, whilst OEagrian Hebrus rolled down the middle of its 
tide, his head torn from the alabaster neck, the voice itself, 
and his chilling tongue, invoked Eurydice, ah, unfortunate 
Eurydice ! with his fleeting breath : the banks re-echoed Eu- 
rydice all along the river. Thus Proteus sang, and plunged 
with a bound into the deep sea ; and, where he plunged, he 
tossed up the foaming billows under the whirling tide. 

But not so Cyrene : for kindly she bespoke the trembling 
[Aristeas] : My son, you may ease your mind of vexatious 
cares. This is the whole cause of your disaster ; hence the 
nymphs, with whom she used to celebrate the mingled dances 
in the deep groves, have sent this mournful destruction on 
your bees : but suppliant bear offerings, beseeching peace, and 
venerate the gentle wood-nymphs ; for at your supplications 
they will grant forgiveness, and mitigate their wrath. But 
first will I show you in order what must be your manner of 
worship. Single out four choice bulls of beauteous form, 
which now graze for you the tops of green Lycseus ; and as 
many heifers, whose necks are untouched [by the yoke]. For 
these erect four altars at the lofty temples of the goddesses : 
from their throats emit the sacred blood, and leave the bodies 
of the cattle in the leafy grove. Afterwards, when the ninth 
morn has displayed her rising beams, you may offer Lethsean 
poppies as funeral rites to Orpheus, venerate appeased Eury- 
dice with a slain calf, sacrifice a black ewe, and revisit the 
grove. 

Without delay, he instantly executes the orders of his 
mother ; repairs to the temple ; raises the altars as directed ; 
leads up four chosen bulls of surpassing form, and as many 
heifers, whose necks were untouched. Thereafter, the ninth 
morning having ushered in her rising beams, he offers the 
funeral rites to Orpheus, and revisits the grove. But here 
they behold a sudden prodigy, and wonderful to relate ; bees 
through all the belly hum amidst the decomposed bowels of 
the cattle ; pour forth with the fermenting juices from the 
burst sides, and in immense clouds roll along ; then swaric 
together on the top of a tree, and hang down in a cluster from 
the bending boughs. 

Thus of the culture of fields, and flocks, and of trees, J 



102 GEORGICS. b. iv. 56C*~566. 

sung ; whilst great Caesar at the deep Euphrates was thun- 
dering in war, was victoriously dispensing laws among the 
willing nations, and pursuing the path to Olympus. At that 
time, me, Virgil, sweet Parthenope 38 nourished, flourishing in 
the studies of inglorious ease ; who warbled pastoral songs, 
and, adventurous through youth, sung thee, O Tityrus, under 
the covert of a spreading beech. 

38 Parthenope, afterwards called Neapolis, (Naples,) a celebrated city 
of Campania, in Italy, seated on a beautiful bay, from which it rises like 
fji amphitheatre. It received the name of Parthencpe from one of the 
Sirens who was buried there. 



I 



nA^j^^<* A ^^ ji ^ / ^ 



VIEGIL'S ^NEID 




BOOK I. 

The subject of the JEneid is the settlement of iEneas in Italy. This noUc 
Poem, on the composition of which Virgil was engaged eleven years, con- 
sists of twelve books, and comprehends a period of eight years. In the 
First Book, the hero is introduced, in the seventh year of his expedition, 
sailing from Sicily, and shipwrecked upon the coast of Africa, where he is 
kindly received by Dido, queen of Carthage. The description of the 
storm in this book is particularly admired. 

Arms I sing, 1 and the hero, who first, exiled by fate, came 
from the coast of Troy to Italy, and the Lavinian 2 shore : 
much was he tossed both on sea and land, by the power of those 
above, on account of the unrelenting rage of cruel Juno : 
much too he suffered in war till he founded a city, and brought 
his gods into Latium : from whence the Latin progeny, the 
Alban fathers, and the walls of lofty Rome. 

Declare to me, O Muse ! the causes, in what 3 the deity 
being offended, by what the queen of heaven was provoked 
to drive a man of distinguished piety to struggle with so 
many calamities, to encounter so many hardships. Is there 
such resentment in heavenly minds ? 

An ancient city there was, Carthage, 4 (inhabited by a colony 
of Tyrians,) fronting Italy and the mouth of the Tiber, far 
remote y vast in riches, and extremely hardy in warlike ex- 
ercises ; which [city] Juno is said to have honoured more 

1 Respecting the four verses usually prefixed to the iEneid, see Anthon. B. 

2 Lavinium, (Pratica,) a city of Latium, built by iEneas, and called 
by that name in honour of Lavinia. 

3 i. e. " quo modo." It is a mistake to suppose that we should join 
" quo numine," since Juno has been already mentioned. B. 

4 Carthage, a powerful city of ancient Africa, on a peninsula, 12 miles 
north-east of Tunis, was built by a colony of Tyrians under Dido, about 
100 years before the foundation of Rome. After having been long mis- 
tress at sea, and the rival of Rome, Carthage was totally destroyed by 
Scipio Africanus the younger, in the third Punic war, b. c. 146, an event 
to which the memorable words, " Delenda est Carthago," of the elder 
Cato, mainly contributed. 



104 J3NEID. b. i. 16—33. 

.han any other place of her residence, Samos 5 being set aside. 
Here lay her arms ; here was her chariot ; here the goddess 
even then designs and fondly hopes to establish a seat of 
universal empire, would only the Fates permit. But she had 
heard of a race to be descended from Trojan blood, that was 
one day to overturn the Tyrian towers : that hence a people 
of extensive regal sway, and proud in war, would come to the 
destruction of Libya: so the destinies ordained. This the 
daughter of Saturn dreading, and mindful of the old war 
which she had the principal hand in carrying on before Troy, 6 
in behalf of her beloved Argos ; 7 nor as yet were the causes 
of her rage and keen resentment worn out of her mind ; the 
judgment of Paris dwells deeply rooted in her soul, the affront 
offered to her neglected beauty, the detested [Trojan] race, 
and the honours conferred on ravished Ganymede : 8 she, by 
these things fired, having tossed on the whole ocean the 
Trojans, whom the Greeks and merciless Achilles had left, 
drove them far from Latium ; 9 and thus, for many years, they, 
driven by fate, roamed round every sea : so vast a work it 
was to found the Roman state. 

5 Samos, an island in the JSgean Sea, near the coast of Ionia. It is 
extremely fertile, producing the most delicious fruits, and is famous as 
being the birth-place of Pythagoras. Samos was sacred to Juno, who 
had here a most magnificent temple. 

6 Troy, or Ilium, one of the most renowned cities of antiquity, the 
capital of Troas in Asia Minor, was built on a small eminence near Mount 
Ida, between the Simois and Scamander, a short distance above their 
confluence, and about four miles from the JEgesai shore. Of all the wars 
that have been carried on among the ancients, that of Troy is the most 
famous, whether we regard the celebrity of the chiefs engaged in it, or 
the deeds in arms which it called forth. According to the generally re- 
ceived account, the Trojan war was undertaken by the Greeks to recover 
Helen, the wife of Menelaus, whom Paris, the son of Priam, king of 
Troy, had carried away. All Greece united to avenge the cause of Me- 
nelaus, and Troy, after a siege of ten years, was taken and burnt, b. c. 
1184. No vestige now remains of ancient Troy; and even its site has 
become matter of uncertainty. 

7 Argos, the capital of Argolis, a district of Peloponnesus, of which 
Juno was the chief deity. During the Trojan war, Agamemnon was king 
of the united kingdom of Argos and Mycenae. 

8 Ganymede, the son of Tros, king of Troy, feigned to have been taken 
up to heaven by Jupiter, and there became the cupbearer of the gods in 
the place of Juno's daughter Hebe. 

9 Latium, (Campagna di Roma,) a country of Italy, on the east of the 
Tiber. The Latins rose into importance when Romulus had founded the 
city of Rome in their country. 



b. i. 34—54. JENEID. 105 

Scarcely Lad the Trojans, losing sight of Sicily, 10 with joy 
launched out into the deep, and were ploughing the foaming 
billows with their brazen prows, when Juno, harbouring ever- 
lasting rancour in her breast, thus witE herself: 11 Shall I 
then, baffled, desist from my purpose, nor have it in my power 
to turn away the Trojan king from Italy ? because I am re- 
strained by fate ! Was Pallas able to burn the Grecian ships, 
and bury themselves in the ocean, for the offence of one, and the 
frenzy of Ajax, 12 Oileus' son? She herself, hurling from the 
clouds Jove's rapid fire, both scattered their ships, and up- 
turned the sea with the winds : him too she snatched away 
in a whirlwind, breathing flames from his transfixed breast, 
and dashed him against the pointed rock. But I, who move 
majestic, 13 the queen of heaven, both sister and wife of Jove, 
must maintain a series of wars with one single race for so 
many years. And who will henceforth adore Juno's divinity, 14 
or humbly offer sacrifice on her altars ? 

The goddess by herself revolving such thoughts in her in- 
flamed breast, repairs to .ZEolia, 15 the native land of storms, 
regions 16 pregnant with boisterous winds. Here, in a vast 
cave, king JEolus controls with imperial sway the reluctant 
winds and sounding tempests, and confines them with chains 

10 Sicily, the largest and most celebrated island in the Mediterranean 
Sea, to the south of Italy, and separated from it by the Straits of Messina. 
It is of a triangular form, and from its three promontories was anciently 
called Trinacria. Its name Sicily was derived from the Siculi, a people 
of Italy who settled in it. 

11 Cf. interpp. on Ter. Andr. i. 1, 55, " Egomet continuo mecum." B. 

12 Ajax, the son of Oileus, king of Locris, one of the Grecian chiefs in 
the Trojan war. He was surnamed Locrian, to distinguish him from 
Ajax the son of Telamon. 

13 Such is the proper sense of " incedere." Cf. Mn. i. 493. Tibull. 
li. 6, 34. Propert. ii. 1,5. More particularly Seneca, Nat. Q. vii. 31, 
" non ambulamus, sed incedimus." Propert. ii. 2, 58 } " incedit vel 
Jove digna soror." B. 

14 Some MSS. of Quintilian, ix. 2, p. 772, give " nomen." Cf. Drak. 
on Sil. i. 93. B. 

15 The iEolian Islands, situated between Italy and Sicily, which were 
seven in number. Here jEolus, the son of Hippotas, reigned, reputed 
king of the winds, because, from a course of observations, he had ac- 
quired some knowledge of the weather, and was capable of foretelling 
at times what wind would blow for some days together, as we learn from 
Diodorus and Pliny. 

16 For the change of number, " patriam loca," cf. iEn. vi. " Itur 

in antiquam silvam, stabula alta ferarum." B. 



106 JENEID. b. i. 55- 58 

in prison. They roar indignant round their barriers, filling 
the mountain with loud murmurs. ^Eolus is seated on a lofty 
throne, wielding a sceptre, and assuages their fury, and moder- 
ates their rage. For, unless he did so, they, in their rapid 
career, would bear away sea and earth, and the deep heaven, 
and sweep them through the air. But the almighty Sire, 
guarding against this, hath pent them in gloomy caves, and 
thrown over them the ponderous weight of mountains, and 
appointed them a king, who, by fixed laws, and at command, 
knows both to curb them, and when to relax their reins ; 
whom Juno then in suppliant words thus addressed : -ZEolus, 
(for the sire of gods and the king of men hath given thee 
power both to smooth the waves, and raise them with the 
wind,) a race by me detested sails the Tuscan Sea, transport- 
ing Ilium, and its conquered gods, into Italy. Strike force 
into thy winds, overset and sink 17 the ships ; or drive them 
different ways, and strew the ocean with carcasses. I have 
twice seven lovely nymphs, the fairest of whom, Deiopeia, I 
will join to thee in firm wedlock, and assign to be thine own 
for ever, 18 that with thee she may spend all her years for this 
service, and make thee father of a beautiful offspring. 

To whom -ZEolus replies : 'Tis thy task, O queen, to con- 
sider what you would have done : on me it is incumbent to 
execute your commands. You conciliate to me whatever of 
power I have, my sceptre, and Jove. You grant me to sit 
at the tables of the gods : 19 and you make me lord of storms 
and tempests. 

Thus having said, whirling the point of his spear, he struck 
the hollow mountain's side: and the winds, as in a formed 
battalion, rush forth at every vent, and scour over the lands 
in a hurricane. They press upon the ocean, and at once, east, 
and south, and stormy south-west, plough up the whole deep 
from its lowest bottom, and roll vast billows to the shores. 
The cries of the seamen succeed, and the cracking of the cord- 
age. In an instant clouds snatch the heavens and day from 

17 i. e. " obrue, ut submergantur." So in Greek, as Soph. CEd. T. 165, 
•qvvaar eicro7riav 0\oya, i. e. were elvai eicT07riav. Eur. Ph. 446, diaX- 
X&Zacrav o/JLoyeveig (piXovg. B. 

18 This is the complete sense of " propriam," expressing the Homeric 
fjv aiev keXSsai ijfiara rrdvra (II. JEJ. cap. 269). Cf. Westerhov. on Ter. 
Andr. iv. 3, 1. B. 

19 Festus, " maxima enim fuit honos, Divum epulis accumbere." B 



B. I. 89—110. -ENEID. 10? 

the eyes of the Trojans: sable night sits brooding on the sea, 
thunder roars from pole to pole, the sky glares with repeated 
flashes, and all nature threatens them with immediate death. 
Forthwith Eneas' 20 limbs are relaxed with cold shuddering 
fear. He groans, and, spreading out both his hands to heaven, 
thus expostulates : O thrice and four times happy they, who 
had the good fortune to die before their parents' eyes, under 
the high ramparts of Troy ! O thou, the bravest of the Gre- 
cian race, great Tydeus' 21 son, why was I not destined to fall 
on the Trojan plains, and pour out/ this soul by thy right 
hand? where stern Hector 22 lies prostrate by the sword of 
Achilles ; where mighty Sarpedon 23 [lies] ; where Simois 24 
rolls along so many shields, and helmets, and bodies of heroes 
snatched away beneath its waters. 

While uttering such words a tempest, roaring from the 
north, strikes across the sail, and heaves the billows to the 
stars. The oars are shattered : then the prow turns away, 
and exposes the side to the waves. A steep mountain of 
waters follows in a heap. These hang on the towering surge ; 
to those the wide-yawning deep discloses the earth between 
two waves : the whirling tide rages with [mingled] sand. 
Three other ships the south wind, hurrying away, throws on 
hidden rocks ; rocks in the midst of the ocean, which the 
Italians call Altars, 25 a vast ridge rising to the surface of the 

20 ^Eneas, a Trojan prince, son of Anchises and Venus, who, after the 
fall of Troy, came to Italy, where he married Lavinia, the daughter of 
Latinus, whom he succeeded in his kingdom. 

21 Tydeus' son, Diomedes, the son of Tydeus and Deiphyle, was king 
of iEtolia, and one of the most renowned of the Grecian chiefs in the 
Trojan war, where he performed many heroic deeds. 

22 Hector, the son of Priam and Hecuba, was the most valiant of all 
the Trojan chiefs. For a long time he gloriously sustained the destinies 
of Troy, till at last he fell by the hand of Achilles, who dragged the body, 
with insulting triumph, three times round the tomb of Patrocles and the 
walls of Troy. 

23 Sarpedon, a son of Jupiter by Europa, and brother to Minos, went 
to the Trojan war to assist Priam, and was slain by Patroclus. According 
to some authors, the Sarpedon who assisted Priam was king of Lycia, 
and son of Jupiter by Laodamia, the daughter of Bellerophon. 

24 Simois, a river of Troas, which rose in Mount Ida, and fell into the 
Scamander below Troy. 

25 Altars ; these were the iEgates, three small islands opposite Car- 
thage, near which the Roman fleet, under L. Catulus, obtained a de- 
cisive victory over that of the Carthaginians, which put an end to the 



• ' • ' 



J 08 JENEID. e. i. Hi— 139. 

sea. Three from the deep the east wind drives on shoals and 
flats, a piteous spectacle ! and dashing on the shelves, it en- 
closes them with mounds of sand. Before the eyes of ^Eneas 
himself, a mighty billow, falling from the height, dashes 
against the stern of one which bore the Lycian crew, and 
faithful Orontes : 26 the pilot is tossed out and rolled head- 
long, prone [into the waves] ; but her the driving surge 
thrice whirls around in the same place, and the rapid eddy 
swallows up in the deep. Then floating here and there on 
the vast abyss, are seen men, their arms and planks, and the 
Trojan wealth, among the waves. Now the storm over- 
powered the stout vessel of Ilioneus, 27 now that of brave 
Achates, and that in which Abas sailed, and that in which 
old Alethes : all, at their loosened and disjointed sides, receive 
the hostile stream, and gape with chinks. 

Meanwhile Neptune perceived that the sea was in great 
uproar and confusion, a storm sent forth, and the depths over- 
turned from their lowest channels. He, in violent commo- 
tion, and looking forth from the deep, reared his serene coun- 
tenance above the waves ; sees .ZEneas's fleet scattered over 
the ocean, the Trojans oppressed with the waves and the ruin 
from above. Nor were Juno's wiles and hate unknown to 
her brother. He calls to him the east and west winds ; then 
thus addresses them : And do you thus presume upon your 
birth ? dare you, winds ! without my sovereign leave, to em- 
broil heaven and earth, and raise such mountains. Whom 

I 28 But first it is right to assuage the tumultuous waves. 

A chastisement of another nature from me awaits your next 
offence. Fly apace, and bear this message to your king : That 
not to him the empire of the sea, and the awful trident, but 
to me by lot are given : his dominions are the mighty rocks, 

first Punic war, b. c. 241. Davidson. Heyne would condemn this 
line as spurious. It is, however, quoted by Quintil. viii. 2, p. 675, Cf. 
Wyttenb. on Plat. Phaedon. § 135. B. 

26 Orontes commanded the Lycian fleet, which, after the fall of Troy, 
accompanied .Eneas in his voyage to Italy. 

27 Ilioneus, son of Phorbas, was distinguished for his eloquence. 
Achates, a friend of iEneas, whose fidelity was so exemplary, that Fidus 
Achates became a proverb. 

28 This aTro<JiuTrr)(jiQ, or sudden break in speaking, is remarked by 
Donatus on Ter. Eun. i. 1, 20, Aquila Romanus, fig. rhet. p. 147, ed. 
Kuhnk. and Quintil. ix. 2, p. 781. B. 



b. i. 140—171. ^ENEID. 109 

your proper mansions, Eurus : in that palace let king Mollis 
proudly boast, and reign in the close prison of the winds. 

So he speaks, and, more swiftly than his speech, 29 smooths 
the swelling seas, disperses the collected clouds, and brings 
back the day. With him Cymothoe, 30 and Triton with exerted 
might, heave the ships from the pointed rock. He himself 
raised them with his trident ; lays open the vast sandbanks, 
and calms the sea ; and in his light chariot glides along the 
surface of the waves. And as when a sedition has perchance 31 
arisen among a mighty multitude, and the minds of the ig- 
noble vulgar rage ; now firebrands, now stones fly ; fury sup- 
plies them with arms : if then, by chance, they espy a man 
revered in piety and worth, they are hushed, and stand with 
ears erect ; he, by eloquence, rules their passions, and calms 
their breasts. Thus all the raging tumult of the ocean sub- 
sides, as soon as the sire, surveying the seas, and wafted 
through the open sky, guides his steeds, and flying, gives the 
reins to his easy chariot. 

The weary Trojans direct their course towards the nearest 
shores, and make the coast of Libya. In a long recess, a sta- 
tion lies ; an island forms it into a harbour by its jutting sides, 
against which every wave from the ocean is broken, and divides 
itself into receding curves. On either side vast cliffs, and two 
twin-like rocks, threaten the sky ; under whose summit the 
waters all around are calm and still. Above is a sylvan scene 
with waving woods, and a dark grove with awful shade hangs 
over. Under the opposite front a cave is of pendant rocks, 32 
within which are fresh springs, and seats of living stone, 33 
the recess of nymphs. Here neither cables hold, nor anchors 
with crooked fluke moor the weather-beaten ships. To this 
retreat JEneas brings seven ships, collected from all his fleet ; 
and the Trojans, longing much for land, disembarking, enjoy 

29 See Anthon. So Xdyov Oarrov, Heliodor. Eth. i. 15. iv. 10. B. 

30 Cymothoe, one of the Nereids. Triton, a powerful sea-deity, son of 
Neptune and Amphitrite. Many of the sea-gods were called Tritons, but 
thtf name was generally applied to those only who were represented half 
men and half fishes. 

31 " Saepe," like the Greek ttoWolkiq, is often used in this sense, as ob- 
served by Abresch. Diluc. Thucyd. p. 174, and Heindorf on Plat. Phae- 
don. § 11. B. 

32 My interpretation is justified by Ennius, Scriver. p. 20, " per spe- 
luncas saxis strueias asperis pendentibus." B. 

33 olvtotikt' dvrpa, ^Esch. Prom. 309. In English, " natural caves." B 



HO ^NEID. b. i. 172—205. 

the wished-for shore, and stretch their brine-drenched limbs 
upon the beach. Then first Achates struck spark from a flint, 
received the fire in leaves, round it applied dry combustible 
matter, and instantly blew up a flame from the fuel. Then, 
spent with toil and hunger, they produce their grain, damaged 
by the sea- water, and the instruments of Ceres ; and prepare 
to dry over the fire, and to grind with stones, their rescued 
corn. Meanwhile JEneas climbs a rock, and takes a prospect 
of the wide ocean all around, if, by any means, he can descry 
any [man like] Antheus tossed by the wind, and the Phrygian 
galleys, or Capys, 34 or the arms of Caicus, on the lofty deck. 
He sees no ship in view, but three stags straying on the shore : 
these the whole herd follow, and are feeding through the valley 
in a long-extended train. Here he stopped short, and snatch- 
ing his bow and swift arrows, (weapons which the faithful 
Achates bore,) first prostrates the leaders, bearing their heads 
high with branching horns ; next the vulgar throng ; and dis- 
perses the whole herd, driving them with darts through the 
leafy woods. Nor desists he, till conqueror he stretches seven 
huge deer on the ground, and equals their number with his 
ships. Hence he returns to the port, and shares them amongst 
all his companions. Then the hero divides the wine which 
the good Acestes 35 had stowed in casks on the Sicilian shore, 
and given them at parting, and with these words cheers their 
saddened hearts : O companions, who have sustained severer 
ills than these, (for we are not strangers to former days of 
adversity,) to these, too, God will grant a termination. You 
have approached 36 both Scylla's fury, and those deep roaring 
rocks ; you are unacquainted with the dens of the Cyclops : 
resume then your courage, and dismiss your desponding fears ; 
perhaps hereafter it may delight you to remember these suf- 
ferings. Through various mischances, through so many pe- 
rilous adventures, we steer to Latium, where the Fates give us 
the prospect of peaceful settlements. There Troy's kingdom 

34 Capys. This brave Trojan was one of those who, against the advice oi 
Thymcetes, wished to destroy the wooden horse, which proved the de- 
struction of Troy. 

35 Acestes, a king of Sicily, who assisted Priam in the Trojan war, 
and who afterwards kindly entertained iEneas when he landed upon the 
coast of Sicily. 

36 " Accedere," = " to encounter," is properly used of any thing dan- 
gerous. Cf. JBurm B, 






b. L 206-240. ^ENEID. 1 1 1 

is allowed once more to rise. Persevere, and reserve your- 
selves for prosperous days. So he says in words ; and op- 
pressed with heavy cares, wears the looks of hope, buries deep 
anguish in his breast. 

They address themselves to the spoil and future feast ; tear 
the skin from the ribs, and lay the flesh bare. Some cut into 
parts, and fix on spits the quivering limbs : others place the 
brazen caldrons on the shore, and prepare the fires. Then 
they repair their strength with food, and, stretched along the 
grass, regale themselves with old wine and fat venison. After 
hunger was taken away by banquets, and the viands removed, 
in long discourse they inquire after their lost companions, in 
suspense between hope and fear, whether to believe them yet 
alive, or that they have finished their destiny, and no longer 
hear when called. Above the rest, the pious JEneas, within 
himself, bemoans now the loss of the active Orontes, now of 
Amycus, and then the cruel fate of Lycus, with valiant Gyas, 
and valiant Cloanthus. 

And now there was an end [of discourse] ; when Jove, 
looking down from the lofty sky upon the sail-flown sea, and 
the lands lying at rest, with the shores and the nations dis- 
persed abroad ; thus stood on the pinnacle of heaven, and 
fixed his eyes on Libya's realms. To him, revolving such 
cares in his mind, Venus, in mournful mood, her bright eyes be- 
dimmed with tears, addresses herself: O thou, who with eter- 
nal sway rulest, and with thy thunder overawest, the affairs of 
both gods and men, what so high offence against thee could 
my iEneas or the Trojans be guilty of, that, after having suf- 
fered so many deaths, they must be shut out from all the world 
on account of Italy ? Surely you promised, that in some future 
age, after circling years, the Romans should descend from 
them, powerful leaders spring from the blood of Teucer 37 re- 
stored, who should rule the sea, the nations with absolute 
sway. Father ! why is thy purpose changed ? I, indeed, was 
solacing myself with this promise under Troy's fall and sad 
ruin, with fates balancing contrary fates. Now the same 
fortune still pursues them, after they have been driven with 
such variety of woes. Great king, what end to their labours wilt 

37 Teucer, a king of Phrygia, son of Scamander. Troy was called 
from him Teucria, and the Trojans Teucri. 



JJ2 ^NEID. e.i. 241—270 

thou give ? 38 Antenor, escaped from amidst the Greeks, could 
with safety penetrate the Illyrian gulf, and the inmost realms of 
Liburnia, 39 and overpass the springs of Timavus ; whence, 
through nine mouths, with loud echoing from the mountain, it 
bursts away a sea impetuous, and sweeps the fields with a roar- 
ing deluge. Yet there he built the city of Padua, 40 established 
a Trojan settlement, gave the nation a name, and set up the 
arms of Troy. Now in calm peace composed he rests : we, 
thy own progeny, whom thou by thy nod ordainest the 
throne of heaven, (oh woe unutterable !) having lost our ships, 
are betrayed, driven hither and thither far from the Italian 
coast, to gratify the malice of one. Are these the honours of 
piety ? is it thus thou replacest us on the throne ? 

The sire of gods and men, smiling upon her, with that as- 
pect wherewith he clears the tempestuous sky, gently kissed 
his daughter's lips ; then thus replies : Cytherea, 41 cease from 
fear : immoveable to thee remain the fates of thy people. 
Thou shalt see the city and promised walls of Lavinium, and 
shalt raise magnanimous iEneas aloft to the stars of heaven ; 
nor is my purpose changed. In Italy he (for I will tell thee, 
since this care lies gnawing at thy heart, and tracing farther 
back, I will reveal the secrets of fate) shall wage a mighty war, 
crush a stubborn nation, and establish laws and cities to his 
people, till the third summer shall see him reigning in Latium, 
and three winters pass after he has subdued the Rutulians. 42 
But the boy Ascanius, 43 who has now the surname of lulus, 
(Tlus he was, while the empire of Hium flourished,) shall mea- 
sure with his reign full thirty great circles of revolving months, 
transfer the seat of his empire from Lavinium, and strongly 

38 Eur. Alcest. 214, ioj Zev, rig av ira iropoq icaicwv Tkvoiro, icai Xihtiq 
rvxag; B. 

39 Liburnia, (Croatia,) a province of Illyria, at the head of the Adri- 
atic. 

40 Padua, a city of Italy, celebrated as the birth-place of Livy. 

41 Cytherea, a surname of Venus, from Cythera, (Cerigo,) an island on 
the southern coast of Laconia in Peloponnesus, which was sacred to her. 

42 Rutulians, a people of Latium, anciently known, as well as the 
-Latins, by the name of Aborigines. They supported Turnus their king 

m the war which he waged against iEneas. 

43 Ascanius, called also lulus, was the son of ^Eneas by Creusa ; he 
accompanied his father to Italy, succeeded him in the kingdom of 
Latinus, and built the city of Alba Longa. 



H. i. 271-299. JENEID. 113 

fortify Alba Longa. Here again, for full three hundred years, 
the sceptre shall be swayed by Hector's line, until Ilia, 44 a 
royal priestess, impregnated by Mars, shall bear two infants 
at a birth. Then Ilomulus, exulting in the tawny hide of the 
wolf his nurse, shall take upon him the rule of the nation, 
build a city sacred to Mars, and from his own name call the 
people Romans. To them I fix neither limits nor duration of 
empire ; dominion have I given them without end. And even 
sullen Juno, who now, through jealous fear, creates endless 
disturbance to sea, and earth, and heaven, shall change her 
counsels for the better, and join with me in befriending the 
Romans, lords of the world, and the nation of the gown. Such 
is my pleasure. An age shall come, after a course of years, 
when the house of Assaracus shall bring under subjection 
Phthia 45 and renowned Mycenae, and reign over vanquished 
Argos. A Trojan shall be born of illustrious race, Caesar, 
who shall bound his empire by the ocean, his fame by the 
stars, Julius his name, from great lulus derived. Him, loaded 
with the spoils of the East, you shall receive to heaven at 
length, having seen an end of all your cares : he too shall be 
invoked by vows and prayers. Then, wars having ceased, 
fierce nations shall soften into peace. Hoary Faith, Vesta, 
and Quirinus, 46 with his brother Remus, shall administer jus- 
tice. The dreadful gates of war 47 shall be shut with close 
bolts of iron. Within impious Fury, sitting on horrid arms, 
and his hands bound behind him with a hundred brazen 
chains, in hideous rage shall gnash his bloody laws. 

He said, and from on high sent down Maia's son, 48 that the 
coasts of Libya and the new towers of Carthage might be open 
hospitably to receive the Trojans ; lest Dido, 49 ignorant of hea- 
ven's decree, should shut them out from her ports. He, on the 

44 Ilia, or Rhea, priestess of Vesta, was a daughter of Numitor, king of 
Alba, and the mother of Romulus and Remus by Mars. 

45 Phthia, a city of Thessaly, celebrated as the birth-place of Achilles ; 
it gave name to the surrounding district. 

46 Quirinus, a name given to Romulus, after he was deified. 

47 i. e. of Janus. War is here personified. 

48 Maia's son ; Mercury, a celebrated god of antiquity, the son of Ju- 
piter and Maia ; he was the messenger of the gods, and of Jupiter in par- 
ticular. 

49 Dido, called also Elisa, the daughter of Belus king of Tyre, and the 
'wife of Sicilians, whom her brother Pygmalion murdered for his richer 

I 



H4 JENEID. b. i. 300— 332. 

steerage of his wings, flies through the expanded sky, and 
speedily alighted on the coasts of Libya. And now he puts 
his orders in execution ; and, at the will of the god, the Car- 
thaginians lay aside the fierceness of their hearts : the queen, 
especially, entertains thoughts of peace, and a benevolent dis- 
position towards the Trojans. 

But pious ^Eneas, by night revolving many things, resolved, 
as soon as cheerful day arose, to set out, and to reconnoitre 
the unknown country, on what coasts he was driven by the 
wind ; who are the inhabitants, whether men or wild beasts, 
(for he sees nothing but uncultivated grounds,) and inform 
his friends of his discoveries. Within a winding grove, under 
a hollow rock, he secretly disposed his fleet, fenced round with 
trees and gloomy shades : himself marches forth, attended by 
Achates alone, brandishing in his hand two javelins of broad- 
pointed steel. To whom, in the midst of a wood, his mother 
presents herself, wearing the mien and attire of a virgin, and 
the arms of a Spartan maid ; or resembling Thracian Harpa- 
lyce, 50 when she tires her steeds, and in her course outflies the 
swift Hebrus : for, huntress -like, she had hung from her 
shoulders a light bow, and suffered her hair to wanton in the 
wind ; bare to the knee, with Jier flowing robes gathered in a 
knot. Then first, Pray, youths, she says, inform me if by 
chance ye have seen any of my sisters wandering this way, 
equipped with a quiver, and the skin of a spotted lynx, or with 
full cry urging the chase of a foaming boar. Thus Venus, and 
thus Venus' son replied : Of your sisters not one has been 
heard or seen by me. O virgin, by what name shall I address 
thee ? for thou wearest not the looks of a mortal, nor sounds 
thy voice human. O thou a goddess surely ! Are you the sister 
of Phoebus, or one of the race of the nymphs ? Oh ! be propi- 
tious, and whoever you are, ease our anxious minds, and in- 
form us under what climate, on what region of the globe, we 
at length are thrown. We wander strangers both to the 
country and the inhabitants, driven upon this coast by furious 
winds and swelling seas. So shall many a victim fall a sacri- 

Dido was the founder of the city of Carthage, where she hospitably enter- 
tained ^Eneas, who had been shipwrecked upon the coast. 

50 Harpalyce, a daughter of Harpalycus, king of Thrace, a wotftUfl oi 
the most undaunted courage 



b. i. 333— 368. ^NEID. -Ho 

fice at thine altars by our right hand. Then Venus : I, indeed, 
deem not myself worthy of such honour. It is the custom for 
the Tyrian virgins to wear a quiver, and bind the leg thus 
high with a purple buskin. You see the kingdom of Car- 
thage, a Tyrian people, and Agenor's city. 51 But the country 
is that of Libya, a race invincible in war. The kingdom is 
ruled by Dido, who fled hither from Tyre, to shun her bro- 
ther's hate : tedious is the relation of her wrongs, and intri- 
cate the circumstances ; but I shall trace the principal heads. 52 
Her husband was Sichasus, the richest of the Phoenicians in 
land, and passionately beloved by his unhappy spouse. Her 
father had given her to him in her virgin bloom, and joined 
her in wedlock with the first connubial rites : but her brother 
Pygmalion then possessed the throne of Tyre ; atrociously 
wicked beyond all mortals. Between them hatred arose. 
He, impious, and blinded with the love of gold, having taken 
Sichaeus by surprise, secretly assassinates him before the 
altar, regardless of his sister's great affection. Long he kept 
the deed concealed, and wicked, forging many lies, amused the 
heart-sick, loving [queen] with vain hope. But the ghost of 
her unburied husband appeared to her in a dream, lifting up 
his visage amazingly pale and ghastly : he opened to her view 
the bloody altars, and his breast transfixed with the sword, 
and detected all the hidden villany of the house ; then exhorts 
her to hasten flight, and quit her native country ; and, to aid 
her flight, reveals treasures ancient in the earth, an unknown 
mass of gold and silver. Dido, roused by this awful mes- 
senger, provided friends, and prepared to fly. They assem- 
ble, who either had mortal hatred or violent dread of the 
tyrant : what ships by chance are ready, they seize in haste, 
and load with gold. The wealth of the covetous Pygmalion 
is conveyed over sea. A woman is guide of the exploit. 
Thither they came, where now you will see the stately walls 
and rising towers of a new-built Carthage, and bought as 
much ground as they could enclose with a bull's hide, called 
Byrsa, 53 in commemoration of the deed. But [say] now, who 

51 Agenor's city ; Carthage is so called, as being built by Dido, who 
was a descendant of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. 

52 Literally, " the chief footsteps." B. 

53 Byrsa is also a citadel in the middle of Carthage, on which was the 
temple Of -lEsculapius. 

i 2 



116 ^NEID. b. i. 3G9— 400. 

are you ? or from what coasts you came, or whither are you 
bending your way ? To these her demands, the hero, with 
heavy sighs, and slowly raising his words from the bottom of 
his breast, [thus replies,] If I, O goddess ! tracing from their 
first source, shall pursue, and you have leisure to hear, the 
annals of our woes, the evening star will first shut heaven's 
gates upon the expiring day. 54 Driven over a length of seas 
from ancient Troy, (if the name of Troy hath by chance 
reached your ears,) a tempest, by its wonted chance, threw 
us on this Libyan coast. I am jEneas the pious, renowned 
by fame above the skies, who carry with me in my fleet the 
gods I snatched away from the enemy. I seek my country, 
Italy ; and my descendants sprang fr6m Jove supreme. With 
twice ten ships I embarked on the Phrygian Sea, having fol- 
lowed the destinies vouchsafed me, my goddess-mother point- 
ing out the way ; seven, with much ado, are saved, torn and 
shattered by waves and wind. Myself, a stranger, poor and 
destitute, wander through the deserts of Africa, banished from 
Europe and from Asia. Venus, unable to bear his further 
complaints, thus interrupted in the midst of his grief : Who- 
ever you may be, I trust you live 55 not unbefriended by the 
powers of heaven, who have arrived at a Tyrian city. But 
do you forthwith bend your course directly to the palace of 
the queen : for, that your friends are returned, and your ships 
saved, and by a turn of the north wind wafted into a secure 
harbour, I pronounce to thee with assurance, unless my pa- 
rents, fond of a lying art, have in vain taught me divination. 
See these twelve swans exulting in a body, whom the bird of 
Jove, 56 having glided from the ethereal region, was chasing 
through the open air : now, in a long train, they seem either 
to choose their ground, or to hover over the place they have 
already chosen. As they, returning, sportive clap their 
rustling wings, wheel about the heavens in a troop, and raise 
their melodious notes ; just so your ships and youthful crew, 
either are possessed of the harbour, or are entering the port 

54 See Anthem. Demosth. de Cor. § 91, k7n\ei\jyeL /is Xsyovra rj rjjispa 
rd rojv 7rpoSorwv bvofxara. B. 

35 Ruhnk. on Xen. Mem. iv. 3, 8, most appositely illustrates :lie 
phrase, "auras vitales carpere," from a passage of iElian in Suidas, kqi 

UtOOQ (JTVCLV, KCLl £%f<^ TpO<pr}V ZtOTJg TO fc£ CLVTOV 7TVEVtia. 

iG Bird of Jove, i. e. the eagle. 



B. i. 401—434. .2ENEID. 1 17 

with full sail. Proceed, then, and pursue your way where 
tiiis path directs. 

She said, and turning away, shone radiant with her rosy 
neck, and from her head ambrosial locks breathed divine fra- 
grance : her robe hung flowing to the ground, and by her gait 
the goddess stood confessed. The hero, soon as he knew his 
mother, with these accents pursued her as she fled : Why so 
oft dost thou too cruelly mock thy son with vain shapes ? 
why is it not granted me to join my hand to thine, and to hear 
and answer thee by turns in words sincere and undissembled ? 
Thus he expostulates with her, and directs his course to the 
walls. But Venus screened them on their way with dim 
clouds, and the goddess spread around them a thick veil of 
mist, that none might see, or touch, or cause them interrup- 
tion, or inquire into the reasons of their coming. She herself 
wings her way sublime to Paphos, and with joy revisits her 
seats ; where, sacred to her honour, is a temple, and a hundred 
altars smoke with Sabean incense, and are fragrant with fresh 
garlands. 

Meanwhile they urged their way where the path directs. 
And now they were ascending the hill that hangs over a great 
part of the town, and from above surveys its opposite towers, 
./Eneas admires the mass of buildings, once cottages : 57 he ad- 
mires the gates, the bustle, and the paved streets. The Tyri- 
ans warmly ply the work : some extend the walls, and raise a 
tower to push along unwieldy stones ; some choose out the 
ground for a private building, and enclose it with a trench. 
Some choose [a place for] the courts of justice, for the ma- 
gistrates' [halls] and the venerable senate. 58 Here some are 
digging ports ; there others are laying the foundations for 
lofty theatres, and hewing huge columns from the rocks, the 
lofty decorations of future scenes. Such their toil as in sum- 
mer's prime employs the bees amidst the flowery fields under 
the sun, when they lead forth the full-grown swarms of their 
race, or when they press close the liquid honey, and distend 
the cells with sweet nectar ; 59 or when they disburden those 

57 i. e. " moveable huts." See Anthon. 

58 But it is perhaps better to regard "legunt" as joined with "jura," 
by a zeugma, in this sense ; "they [institute] laws, and choose magis- 
trates.' ' B. 

58 So iLikiaaav vsKTapi, Eur. Bacch. 148 



118 ^NEID. b. i. 434— 407 

that come lioine loaded, or in formed battalion, drive the in- 
active nock of drones from the hives. The work is hotly 
plied, and the fragrant honey smells strongly of thyme. 6 
happy ye, whose walls now rise ! ^Eneas says, and lifts his 
eyes to the turrets of the city. Shrouded in a cloud, (a marvel 
to be told !) he passes amidst the multitude, and mingles with 
the throng, nor is seen by any. 60 In the centre of the city 
was a grove, most delightful in shade, where first the Cartha- 
ginians, driven by wind and wave, dug up the head of a 
sprightly courser, an omen which royal Juno showed : for 
by this [she signified], that the nation was to be renowned 
for war, brave and victorious through ages. Here Sidonian 
Dido built to Juno a stately temple, enriched with gifts, and 
the presence of the goddess ; whose brazen threshold rose on 
steps, the beams were bound with brass, and the hinge creaked 
beneath brazen gates. In this grove the view of an unex- 
pected scene first abated the fear [of the Trojans] : here 
^Eneas first dared to hope for redress, and to conceive better 
hopes of his afflicted state. For while he surveys every ob- 
ject in the spacious temple, waiting the queen's arrival ; while 
he is musing with wonder on the fortune of the city ; and 
[compares] the skill of the artists and their elaborate works, 
he sees the Trojan battles [delineated] in order, and the war 
now known by fame over all the world ; the sons of Atreus, 61 
Priam, 62 and Achilles implacable to both. He stood still; and, 
with tears in his eyes, What place, Achates, what country on 
the globe, is not full of our disaster ? See Priam ! even here 
praiseworthy deeds 63 meet with due reward : here are tears 
for misfortunes, and the breasts are touched 04 with human 
woes. Dismiss your fears : this fame of ours will bring thee 
some relief. Thus he speaks, and feeds his mind with the 
empty representations, heaving many a sigh, and bathes his 
visage in floods of tears. For he beheld how, on one hand, 
the warrior Greeks were flying round the walls of Troy, while 
the Trojan youth closely pursued ; on the other hand, the 

60 A Grecism for " ab ullo." Ovid, Trist. v. 10, 38, " non intellisor 
ulli." B. 

61 Sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus. 

82 Priam, the son of Laomedon, and the last king of Troy, was slain by 
Pvrrhus, the son of Achilles, the same night on which Trov was taken. 
" 63 For this sense of " laus," cf. Catull. lxi. 102. Cicer. in Verr. § 47 B. 
64 So OavovTiov ovckv d\yog airrtrai. Soph. CEd. C. 955. B. 



B# L 468—490. jENEID. 1 IP 

Trojans [were flying], while plumed Achilles, in his chariot, 
pressed on their rear. Not far from that scene, weeping, he 
espies the tents of Rhesus, 65 with their snow-white veils; 
which, betrayed by the first sleep, 66 cruel Diomede plundered, 
drenched in much blood, and led away his fiery steeds to the 
[Grecian] camp, before they had tasted the pasture of Troy, 
or drank of Xanthus. 67 In another part, Troilus, 68 flying 
after the loss of his arms, ill-fated youth, and unequally 
matched with Achilles ! is dragged by his horses, and from 
the empty chariot hangs supine, yet grasping the reins ; his 
neck and hair trail along the ground, and the dusty plain is 
traced by the inverted spear. Meanwhile the Trojan matrons 
were marching to the temple of adverse Pallas, with their 
hair dishevelled, and were bearing the robe, suppliantly mourn- 
ful, and beating their bosoms with their hands. The goddess 
turned away, kept her eyes fixed on the ground. Thrice had 
Achilles dragged Hector round the walls of Troy, and was 
selling his breathless corpse for gold. Then, indeed, .ZEneas 
sent forth a deep groan from the bottom of his breast, when 
he saw the spoils, the chariot, and the very body of his friend, 
and Priam stretching forth his feeble hands. Himself too he 
recognised mingled with the Grecian leaders, and the Eastern 
bands, and the arms of swarthy Memnon. 69 Furious Pen- 
thesilea 70 leads on her troops of Amazons, with their crescent 

65 Rhesus, a warlike king of Thrace, who marched to the assistance of 
Priam. The oracle having foretold that Troy should never be taken if 
the horses of Rhesus drank the waters of Xanthus, and fed upon the grass 
of the Trojan plains ; the Greeks, however, surprised him on the night of 
his arrival, slew him in his tent, and carried away his horses in triumph 
to their camp. 

66 " Primo somno, utgraviorem ostenderet somnum." Servius. Sleep 
is poetically said to have betrayed him, because he was surprised while 
at rest. B. 

67 Xanthus, (Mendere,) a river of Troas, in Asia Minor, rising in Mount 
Ida, and falling into the sea at Sigseum. It is the same with the Sca- 
mander ; according to Homer, it was called Xanthus by the gods, and 
Scamander by men. 

68 Troilus, a son of Priam and Hecuba, slain by Achilles. 

69 Memnon, a king of Ethiopia, son of Tithonus and Aurora. He came 
with a body of 10,000 men to assist his uncle Priam in the Trojan war, 
where he displayed great courage, and killed Antilochus, Nestor's son, 
but was himself afterwards slain by Achilles in single combat. 

70 Penthesilea, a queen of the Amazons, daughter of Mars, who assisted 
Priam, and was slain by Achilles. 



120 JENEI1). b. i. 491—529 

shields, and burns amidst the thickest ranks. Below her ex- 
posed breast the heroine had girt a golden belt, and the virgin 
warrior dares even to encounter with men. 
j, These wondrous scenes while the Trojan prince surveys, 
y\ while he is lost in thought, and in one gaze stands unmoved ; 
* / ^ Queen Dido, of surpassing beauty, advanced to the temple, 
attended by a numerous retinue of youth. As on the banks 
of Eurotas, or on Mount Cynthus' top, Diana leads the circu- 
lar dances, round whom a numerous train of mountain nymphs 
play in rings ; she bears her quiver on her shoulder, and 
moving majestic, she towers above the other goddesses, while 
silent raptures thrill Latona's 71 bosom; such Dido was, and 
such, with cheerful grace, she passed amidst her train, urging 
forward the labour and her future kingdom. Then at the 
gate of the goddess, in the middle of the temple's dome, she 
took her seat, surrounded with her guards, and raised aloft on 
a throne. [Here] she dispensed justice and laws to her sub- 
jects, and, in equal portions, distributed their tasks, or set- 
tled them by lot ; when suddenly iEneas sees, advancing with 
a vast concourse, Antheus, Sergestus, brave Cloanthus, and 
other Trojans, whom a black storm had tossed up and down 
the sea, and driven to other far-distant shores. At once he 
was amazed, at once Achates was struck, and between joy and 
fear both ardently longed to join hands ; but the uncertainty 
of the event perplexes their minds. They carry on their dis- 
guise, and, shrouded under the bending cloud, watch to learn 
the fortune of their friends ; on what coast they left the fleet, 
and on what errand they came : for a select number had come 
from all the ships to sue for grace, and, with mingled voices, 
approached the temple. 

Having gained admission and liberty to speak in the presence, 
Ilioneus their chief, with mind composed, thus began: O 
queen, to whom Jove has granted to found this rising city 
and to curb proud nations with just laws, we Trojans forlorn, 
tossed by winds over every sea, implore thee : keep from our 
ships the merciless flames ; spare a pious race, and propitious- 
ly regard our distresses. We are not come either to ravage with 
the sword the Libyan abodes, or to seize and bear away the plun- 
der to our ships. We have no such hostile intention, nor does 
such pride of heart become the vanquished. There is a place 
71 Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana. 



b. i. 530—560. 



JENEID. 1^1 



called by the Greeks Hesperia, 72 an ancient land, renowned 
for martial deeds and fruitful soil ; the QEnotrians 73 possessed 
it once : now fame is that their descendants call the nation 
Italy, from their leader's name ; hither our course was bent, ' 
when suddenly tempestuous Orion 74 rising from the main, 
drove us on hidden shallows, and with southern blasts fiercely 
sporting, tossed us hither and thither over waves, and over 
pathless rocks, overwhelmed by the briny deep : hither we few 
have floated 75 to your coasts. What a race of men is this ? 
what country so barbarous to allow such manners ? We are 
denied the hospitality of the shore. In arms they rise, and 
forbid our setting foot on the first verge of land. If you set 
at nought the human kind, and the arms of mortals, yet know 
the gods have a mindful regard to right and wrong. We had 
for our king JEneas, than whom no one was more just in piety, 
none more signalized in war and in martial achievements ; 
whom, if the Fates preserve, if he breathe the vital air, and 
do not yet rest with the ruthless shades, neither shall we de- 
spair, nor you repent your having been the first in challenging 
to acts of kindness. We have likewise cities and arms in Si- 
cily, and the illustrious Acestes is of Trojan extraction. Per- 
mit us to bring to shore our wind-beaten fleet, and from your 
woods to choose [trees for] planks, and to refit our oars ; that, 
if it be granted to bend our course to Italy, upon the recovery 
of our prince and friends, we may joyfully set out thither, and 
make the Latian shore. But if our safety has perished, and 
thou, O father of the Trojans, the best of men ! now liest 
buried in the Libyan sea, and no further hope of lulus remains, 
we may at least repair to the straits of Sicily, and the settle- 
ment there prepared for us, (whence we were driven hither,) 
and visit king Acestes. So spoke Bioneus ; at the same time, 
the other Trojans murmured their consent. 

72 Hesperia, a name applied to Italy by the Greeks, and to Spain by 
the Romans. 

73 CEnotrians, the inhabitants of CEnotria, or that part of Italy which 
was afterwards called Lucania. CEnotria is sometimes applied to Italy 
in general. 

74 Orion, one of the constellations, generally supposed to be accompa- 
nied at its rising (in March) with great storms and rains. 

75 " A&navimus " is employed to show that they had a bare escape. So 
"vix enatavimus," Apul. Met. ii. p. 30; e&vrjZajjLeOa, Lucian, Ver. Hist, 
U and de Merc. Cond. B. 



122 ^NEID. 3. i. 561— 594. 

Then Dido, with downcast looks, thus in brief replies: 
Trojans, banish fear from your breasts, lay your cares aside. 
My hard fate, and the infancy of my kingdom, force me to take 
such measures and to secure my frontiers with guards around. 
Who is stranger to the iEneian race, the city of Troy, her 
heroes, and their valorous deeds, and to the devastations of so 
renowned a war ? We Carthaginians do not possess hearts 
that are so obdurate and insensible, nor yokes the sun his 
steeds so far away from our Tyrian city. Whether Hesperia 
the greater, and the country where Saturn reigned, or ye 
choose [to visit] Eryx' 76 coast and king Acestes, I will dis- 
miss you safe with assistance, and support you with my wealth. 
Or will you settle with me in this realm ? The city which I 
am building shall be yours: 77 draw your ships ashore ; Tro- 
jan and Tyrian shall be treated by me with no distinction. 78 
And would that your prince JEneas too were here, driven by 
the same wind ! However, I will send trusty messengers 
along the coasts, with order to search Libya's utmost bounds, 
if he is thrown out to wander in some wood or city. 

Animated by these words, brave Achates and father -ZEneas 
had long impatiently desired to break from the cloud. Achates 
first addressed ^Eneas : Goddess-born, what purpose now 
arises in your mind ? You see all is safe ; your fleet and 
friends restored. One alone is missing, whom we ourselves 
beheld sunk in the midst of the waves : every thing else agrees 
with your mother's prediction. He had scarcely spoken, when 
suddenly the circumambient cloud splits asunder, and dissolves 
into open air. -ZEneas stood forth, and in the clear light shone 
conspicuous, in countenance and form resembling a god : for* 
Venus herself had breathed upon her son graceful locks, and 
the radiant bloom of youth, and breathed a sprightly lustre 
on his eyes : such beauty as the hand superadds to ivory, 
or where silver or Parian marble is enchased with yellow 
gold. 

Then suddenly addressing the queen, he, to the surprise of 

76 Eryx, a king of Sicily, son of Butes and Venus ; also a town and 
mountain of Sicily, near Drepanum. On the summit of Mount Eryx 
(Giuliano) stood a famous temple of Venus, who is hence called Erycina. 

77 A common construction. Cf. Ter. Eun. iv. 3, 11. Plaut. Epid. iii. 
£, 12. B. 

78 Cf. JEn. x. 108, " Tros Tyriusve fuat, nullo discrimine habebo." B. 



b.i. 595— 629. ^ENEID. 123 

all, 79 thus begins : I, whom you seek, am present before you ; 
Trojan ^Eneas, snatched from the Libyan waves. thou, 
who alone hast commiserated Troy's unnutterable calamities ! 
who in thy town and palace dost associate us, a remnant saved 
from the Greeks, who have now been worn out by woes in 
every shape, both by sea and land, and are in want of all 
things ! to repay thee due thanks, great queen, exceeds the 
power not only of us, but of all the Dardan race, 80 wherever 
dispersed over the world. The gods (if any powers divine 
regard the pious, if justice any where exists, and a mind con- 
scious of its own virtue) shall yield thee a just recompence. 
What age was so happy as to produce thee ? who were the 
parents of so illustrious an offspring ? While rivers run into 
the sea, while shadows move round the convex mountains, 
while heaven feeds the stars ; your honour, name, and praise 
[with me] shall ever live, to whatever climes I am called. 
This said, he embraces his friend Ilioneus with his right hand, 
and Serestus with his left : then the rest, the heroic Gyas, and 
heroic Cloanthus. 

Sidonian Dido stood astonished, first at the presence of the 
hero, then at his signal sufferings, and thus her speech ad- 
dressed : What hard fate, O goddess-born, pursues thee 
through such mighty dangers ! what power drives thee on 
this barbarous coast? Are you that JEneas, whom, by 
Phrygian Simois' stream, fair Venus bore to Trojan Anchises ? 
And now, indeed, I call to mind that Teucer, expelled from 
his native country, came to Sidon in quest of a new kingdom, 
by the aid of Bel us. My father Belus then reaped the soil of 
wealthy Cyprus, 81 and held it in subjection to his victorious 
arms. Ever since that time I have been acquainted with the 
fate of Troy, with your name, and the Grecian kings. The 
enemy himself extolled the Trojans with distinguished praise, 
and with pleasure traced his descent from the ancient Trojan 
race. Come then, youths, enter our walls. Me, too, through 
a series of labours tossed, a like fortune has at length 

79 Mamertinus Pan. Jul. vi. § 3, " In medio Illyrici sinus improvisus 
apparuit." " Improvisus "=" de improviso," " unexpectedly." B. 

80 Dardan race ; the Trojans, as descended from Dardanus, the son of 
Jupiter and Electra, who fled to Asia Minor, where he built the city of 
Dardania, and became the founder of the kingdom of Troy. 

81 Cyprus, a large and fertile island in the eastern part of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, sacred to Venus, who had here two celebrated temples. 



124 ^NEID. e. i. 630-601. 

doomed to settle in this land. Not unacquainted with mis- 
fortune [in my own person], I have learned to succour the 
distressed. 

This said, she forthwith leads iEneas into the royal apart- 
ments, and at the same time ordains due honours for the tem- 
ples of the gods. Meanwhile, with no less care, she sends 
presents to his companions on the shore, twenty bulls, a hun- 
dred bristly backs of huge boars, a hundred fat lambs, with 
the ewes, as gifts and pleasure for the day. 82 But the inner 
rooms are splendidly furnished with regal pomp, and banquets 
are prepared in the middle of the hall. Couch draperies 
wrought with art, and of proud purple ; massy silver plate on 
the table, and, embossed in gold, the brave exploits of her 
ancestors, a lengthened series of history traced down through 
so many heroes, from the first founder of the ancient race. 
iEneas (for paternal affection suffered not his ■ mind to rest) 
with speed sends on Achates to the ships, to bear those tidings 
to Ascanius, and bring [the boy] himself to the city. All 
the care of the fond parent centres in Ascanius. Besides, he 
bids him bring presents, saved from the ruins of Troy, a 
mantle stiff with gold and figures, and a veil woven round 
with saffron-coloured acanthus, the ornaments of Grecian 
Helen, 83 which she had brought with her from Mycenas, when 
bound for Troy, and lawless nuptials ; her mother Leda's 
wondrous gift ; a sceptre too, which once Ilione, Priam's eldest 
daughter, bore, a necklace strung with pearl, and a crown 
set with double rows of gems and gold. This message to 
despatch, Achates directed his course to the ships. 

But Venus revolves in her breast new plots, new designs ; 
that Cupid 84 should come in place of sweet Ascanius, assum- 
ing his mien and features, and by the gifts kindle in the queen 
all the rage of love, and enwrap the flame in her very bones ; 
for she dreads the equivocating race, and the double-tongued 

82 The readings vary between " die," " dii," and " dei." See Servius. 
I have, with Wagner, preferred " dii," which has the additional authority 
of Gellius, ix. 14. B. 

83 Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, was the most beautiful 
woman of her age. In the absence of her husband, Paris, son of king 
Priam, carried her away, which was the cause of the ten years' war against 
Troy, and the destruction of that celebrated city. 

84 ' Cupid, in the heathen mythology, was the god of love, and the son 
of Venus. 



B. l. 662— 701. ^ENEID. 125 

Tyrians. Fell Juno torments her, and with the night her 
care returns. To winged Love, therefore, she addresses these 
words : O son, my strength, my mighty power ; my son, who 
alone defiest the Typhoean bolts of Jove supreme, to thee I 
fly, and suppliant implore thy deity. 'Tis known to thee 
how round all shores thy brother .ZEneas is tossed from sea to 
sea, by the spite of partial Juno, and in my grief thou hast 
often grieved. Him Phoenician Dido entertains, and amuses 
with smooth speech ; and I fear what may be the issue of 
Juno's acts of hospitality : she will not be idle in so critical 
a conjuncture ; wherefore, I purpose to prevent the queen by 
subtle means, and to beset her with the flames of love, that 
no power may influence her to change, but that with me she 
may be possessed by great fondness for JEneas. How this 
thou mayest effect, now hear my plan. The royal boy, my 
chief care, at his father's call, prepares to visit the Sidonian 
city, bearing presents saved from the sea and flames of Troy. 
Him having lulled to rest, I will lay down in some sacred 
retreat on Cythera's tops, or above Idalium, 85 lest he should 
discover the plot, or interfere with it. Do you artfully coun- 
terfeit his face but for one night, and, yourself a boy, assume 
a boy's familiar looks ; that when Dido shall take thee to her 
bosom in the height of her joy, amidst the royal feasts, and 
Bacchus' stream, when she shall give thee embraces, and im- 
print sweet kisses, thou mayest breathe into her the secret 
flame, and by stealth convey the poison. Love obeys the dic- 
tates of his dear mother, and lays aside his wings, and joyful 
trips along in the gait of Iiilus. Meanwhile Venus pours the 
dews of balmy sleep on Ascanius' limbs, and in her bosom 
fondled, conveys him to Idalia's lofty groves, where soft mar- 
joram, perfuming the air with flowers and fragrant shade, 
clasps him round. 

Now, in obedience to his instructions, Cupid went along, 
and bore the royal presents to the Tyrians, pleased with 
Achates for his guide. By the time he arrived, the queen 
had placed herself on a golden couch, under a rich canopy, 
and had taken her seat in the middle. Now father ^Eneas, 
and now the Trojan youth, join the assembly, and couch them- 
selves on the strawn purple. The attendants supply water 

85 Idalium, (Dalin,) a town of Cyprus, at the foot of Mount Idalur, 
with a grove sacred to Venus, who was hence called ldalia. 



126 ^NEID. b. i. 701— 73L 

for the hands, dispense the gifts of Ceres from baskets, and 
furnish them with the smooth-shorn towels. Within are fifty 
handmaids, whose task it was to prepare provisions in due 
order, and do honour 86 to the household gods. A hundred 
more, and as many servants of equal age, are employed to 
load the boards with dishes, and place the cups. In like 
manner the Tyrians, a numerous train, assembled in the joy- 
ful courts, invited to recline on the embroidered beds. They 
view with wonder the presents of ^Eneas : nor with less 
wonder do they view lulus, the glowing aspect of the god, 
his well -dissembled words, the mantle and veil figured with 
leaves of the acanthus in saffron colours. Chiefly the un- 
happy queen, henceforth devoted to love's pestilential influ- 
ence, cannot satisfy her feelings, and is inflamed with every 
glance, and is equally moved by the boy and by his gifts. He 
on -ZEneas' neck having hung with embraces, and having fully 
gratified his fictitious father's ardent affections, makes for 87 
the queen. She clings to him with her eyes, her whole soul, 
and sometimes fondles him in her lap, Dido not thinking what 
a powerful god is settling on her, hapless one. Meanwhile 
he, mindful of his Acidalian mother, begins insensibly to 
efface the memory of Sichseus, and with a living flame tries 
to prepossess her languid affections, and her heart, chilled by 
long disuse. 

Soon as the first banquet ended, and the viands were re- 
moved, they place large mixers, and crown the wines. A 
bustling din arises through the hall, and they roll through 
the ample courts the bounding voice. Down from the gold- 
fretted ceilings 88 hang the flaming lamps, and torches over- 
power the darkness of \he night. Here the queen called for 
a bowl, heavy with gems and gold, and with pure wine filled 
it to the brim, which Belus, 89 and all her ancestors from Belus, 
used ; then, having enjoined silence through the palace, [she 
thus began :] O Jove, (for by thee, it is said, the laws of hos- 
pitality were given,) grant this may be an auspicious day both 

86 " Adolere " = " augere," i. e. " to increase the power of the gods 
■who presided over the hearth, by due attention to culinary offices." Seo 
Anthon. Davidson's note is founded upon an old mistake. B. 

S7 i. e. " insidiatur." -Servius. See Burm. on Petron. p. 490. B." 

88 So Sidon. Apoll. Ep. ix. 13, " laquearibus coruscis camerae in su» 
perna lychnus." B. 

09 Belus, a king of Tyre, from whom Dido was descended. 



b. ii 732-756. u. 1,2. JENEID. 127 

to the Tyrians and my Trojan guests, and may this day be 
commemorated by our posterity. Bacchus, the giver of joy 
and propitious Juno, be present here ; and you, my Tyrians, 
with good will, solemnize this meeting. She said, and on the 
table poured an offering ; and, after the libation, first gently 
touched [the cup] with her lips, then gave it to Bitias 90 with 
a challenge : he quickly drained the foaming bowl, and laved 
himself with the brimming gold. After him the other lords 
[drank]. Long-haired Iopas [next] tunes his golden lyre to 
what the mighty Atlas taught. He sings of the wandering 
moon, and the eclipses of the sun ; whence the race of men 
and beasts, whence showers and fiery meteors arise : of Arc- 
turus, the rainy Hyades, and the two northern wains ; why 
winter suns make so much haste to set in the ocean, or what 
retarding cause detains the slow [summer] nights. The Ty- 
rians redouble their applauses, and the Trojans concur. 

Meanwhile unhappy Dido, with varied converse, spun out 
the night, and drank long draughts of love, questioning much 
about Priam, much about Hector : now in what arms Aurora's 
son had come ; now what were the excellences of Diomede's 
steeds ; now how mighty was Achilles. Nay come, my guest, 
she says ; and from the first origin, relate to us the stratagems 
of the Greeks, the adventures of your friends, and your own 
wanderings ; for now the seventh summer brings thee [to our 
coasts], through wandering mazes roaming o'er every land 
and sea. 

BOOK II. 

In the Second Book, iEneas, at the desire of Queen Dido, relates the fall ol 
Troy, and his escape, through the general conflagration, to Mount Ida. A 
comparison with the poems of Petronius and Tryphiodorus will repay the 
reader. 

All became silent, and fixed their eyes upon him, eagerly at- 
tentive : then father iEneas thus from his lofty l couch began : 

90 Bitias and Iopas, African chiefs and suitors of Queen Dido. 

1 Anthon is wrong in supposing that " alto " has no positive meaning. 
It was customary to pile up the cushions and draperies of the couches, in 
order to form a favourable position for the speaker to be heard. Cf. Apul. 
Met. ii. p. 27, " Aggeratis in tumulum stragulis, et effultis in cubitum, 
^uborcctisque in torum — infit Telephon." B. 









123 iENEID. b. ii. 3—30. 

Unutterable woes, O queen, you urge me to renew : to tell 
how the Greeks overturned the power of Troy, and its de- 
plorable realms ; both what scenes of misery I myself beheld, 
and those wherein I was a principal party. What Myrmidon, 2 
or Dolopian, or who of hardened UlyssSs' 3 band, can, in the 
very telling of such woes, refrain from tears ? Besides, humid 
night is hastening down the sky, and the setting stars invite 
to sleep. But since you are so desirous of knowing our mis- 
fortunes, and briefly hearing the last effort of Troy, though my 
soul shudders at the remembrance, and hath shrunk back with 
grief, yet will I begin. The Grecian leaders, now disheartened 
by the war, and baffled by the Fates, after a revolution of so 
many years, [being assisted] by the divine skill of Pallas, 
build a horse to the size of a mountain, and interweave its ribs 
with planks of fir. This they pretend to be an offering, in 
order to procure a safe return ; which report spread. Hither 
having secretly conveyed a select -band, chosen by lot, they 
shut them up into the dark sides, and fill its capacious caverns 
and womb with armed soldiers. In sight [of Troy] lies Te- 
nedos, 4 an island well known by fame, and flourishing while 
Priam's kingdom stood : now only a bay, and a station unfaith- 
ful for ships. Having made this island, they conceal them- 
selves in that desolate shore. We imagined they were gone, 
and that they had set sail for Mycenae. In consequence of 
[this], all Troy is released from its long distress : the gates 
are thrown open ; with joy we issue forth, and view the Gre- 
cian camp, the deserted plains, and the abandoned shore. 
Here were the Dolopian bands, there stern Achilles had 
pitched his tent ; here were the ships drawn up, there they 

2 The Myrmidons and Dolopians inhabited Thessaly, and the borders 
of Epirus. 

3 Ulysses, the son of Laertes and Anticlea, king of the islands of Ithaca 
and Dulichium, and the hnsband of Penelope, was distinguished among 
the Grecian chiefs for superior prudence and cunning. After the fall of 
Troy, setting sail for his native country, he was exposed to incredible 
dangers and misfortunes, and at last reached home, without a single com- 
panion, after an absence of twenty years. The adventures of Ulysses, in 
his return to Ithaca from the Trojan war, are beautifully depicted by Ho- 
mer, in the first twelve books of the Odyssey. 

4 Tenedos, a small but fertile island of the jEgean Sea, opposite Troy. 
Here the Greeks concealed themselves, to make the Trojans believe (h'J, 
they had abandoned the siege. 

; 



i. ii. 31-66. ^ENEID. 129 

were wont to contend in array. 5 Some view with amaze- 
ment that baleful offering of the virgin Minerva, and won- 
der at the stupendous bulk of the horse ; and Thynioetes 6 first 
advises that it be dragged within the walls and lodged in the 
tower, whether with treacherous design, or that the destiny 
of Troy now would have it so. But Capys, and all whose 7 
minds had wiser sentiments, strenuously urge either to throw 
into the sea the treacherous snare and suspected oblation of the 
Greeks ; or by applying flames consume it to ashes ; or to lay 
open and ransack the recesses of the hollow womb. The fickle 
populace is split into opposite inclinations. Upon this, Lao- 
coon, 8 accompanied with a numerous troop, first before all, with 
ardour hastens down from the top of the citadel ; and while 
yet a great way off, [cries out,] O wretched countrymen, what 
desperate infatuation is this ? Do you believe the enemy 
gone ? or think you any gifts of the Greeks can be free from 
deceit ? Is Ulysses thus known to you ? Either the Greeks lie 
concealed within this wood, or it is an engine framed against 
our walls, to overlook our houses, and to come down upon our 
city; or some mischievous design lurks beneath it. Trojans, 
put no faith in this horse. Whatever it be, I dread the 
Greeks, even when they bring gifts. Thus said, with valiant 
strength he hurled his massy spear against the sides and belly 
of the monster, where it swelled out with its jointed timbers ; 
the weapon stood quivering, and the womb being shaken, the 
hollow caverns rang, and sent forth a groan. And had not the 
decrees of heaven [been adverse], if our minds had not been 
infatuated, he had prevailed on us to mutilate with the sword 
this dark recess of the Greeks ; and thou, Troy, should still 
have stood, 9 and thou, lofty tower of Priam, now remained ! 

5 "Acie." Some MSS. and Rutin, de Schem. lex. p. 33, have " acies." 
Cf. Oudendorp on Frontin. ii. 2. B. 

6 Thymoetes, a Trojan prince^ whose wife and son were put to death by 
Priam ; in revenge, he persuaded his countrymen to bring the wooden 
horse into the city. 

7 On the ellipse of the pronoun, cf. Oudend. on Lucan, x. 347. B. 

8 Laocoon, a son of Priam and Hecuba, and priest of Apollo, who. 
with his two sons, were destroyed by two enormous serpents, while he 
was sacrificing to Neptune. The punishment was believed to be inflicted 
upon him for his temerity in dissuading the Trojans to bring into the 
city the fatal wooden horse, as also for his impiety in hurling a javelin 
against its sides as it entered within the walls. 

9 But Wagner prefers " staret " B. 

K 



130 ^NEID. b. u. 57— 82 

In the mean time, behold, Trojan shepherds, with loud acclam- 
ations, came dragging to the king a youth, whose hands were 
bound behind him ; who, to them a mere stranger, had volun- 
tarily thrown himself in the way, to promote this same de- 
sign, and open Troy to the Greeks ; a resolute soul, and 
prepared for either event, whether to execute his perfidious 
purpose, or submit to inevitable death. The Trojan youth 
pour tumultuously around from every quarter, from eagerness 
to see him, and they vie .with one another in insulting the 
captive. Now learn the treachery of the Greeks, and from 
one crime take a specimen of the whole nation. 10 For as he 
stood among the gazing crowds perplexed, defenceless, and 
threw his eyes around the Trojan bands, Ah ! says he, what 
land, what seas can now receive me? or to what further ex- 
tremity can I, a forlorn wretch, be reduced, for whom there is 
no shelter any where among the Greeks ? and to complete my 
misery, the Trojans too, incensed against me, sue for satisfac- 
tion with my blood. By which mournful accents our affec- 
tions at once were moved towards him, and all our resentment 
suppressed : we exhort him to say from what race he sprang, 
to declare what message he brings, what confidence we may 
repose in him, now that he is our prisoner. Then he, having 
at length laid aside fear, thus proceeds: I indeed, O king, 
will confess to you the whole truth, says he, be the event 
what will ; nor will I disown that I am of Grecian extraction : 
this I premise ; nor shall it be in the power of cruel fortune, 
though she has made Sinon ll miserable, to make him also 
false and disingenuous. If accidentally, in the course of re- 
port, the name of Palamedes, 12 the descendant of Belus, and 

10 Literally, " from one of their tricks learn what they all are." B. 
. n Sinon, a crafty Greek, who prevailed on the Trojans to admit into 
' the city the wooden horse, which was filled with armed Greeks. 

12 Palamedes was the son of Nauplius, king of Euboea, descended from 
Belus, king of Africa, by his grandmother Amymone, the daughter of 
Danaus. The story here referred to, is briefly thus : When Ulysses, to 
be exempt from going to the Trojan war, under pretence of madness, was 
ploughing up the shore, and sowing it with salt, Palamedes laid down his 
son Telemachus in his way, and observing him to turn his plough aside, 
that he might not hurt the boy, by this stratagem discovered his madness 
to be counterfeit. For this Ulysses never could forgive him, and at last 
wrought his ruin, by accusing him of holding intelligence with the enemy : 
to support which charge he forged letters from Priam to Palamedes, 
which he pretended to have intercepted, and conveyed gold into his tent, 



B. ii. 83—109. ^ENETT). 131 

his illustrious renown, ever reached your ears (who, though 
innocent, the Greeks sent down to death, under a false accus- 
ation of treason, upon a villanous evidence, because he gavo 
his opinion against the war; [but whom] now they mou^n 
bereaved of the light) ; with him my poor father sent me in 
company to the war, from my earliest years, being his near 
relative. While he remained safe in the kingdom, and had 
weight in the counsels of the princes, I too bore some reputa- 
tion and honour : [but] from the time that he, by the malice 
of the crafty Ulysses, (they are well-known truths I speak,) 
quitted the regions above, I distressed dragged out my life in 
obscurity and grief, and secretly repined at the fate of my 
innocent friend. Nor could I hold my peace, fool that I was, 
but vowed revenge, if fortune should any way give me the 
opportunity, if ever I should return victorious to my native 
Argos ; and, by my words, I provoked bitter enmity. Hence 
arose the first symptom 13 of my misery ; henceforth Ulysses 
was always terrifying me with new accusations ; henceforth 
he began to spread ambiguous surmises among the vulgar, and, 
conscious [of his own guilt], sought the means of defence. 
Nor did he give over, till, by making Calchas 14 his tool — But 
why do I thus in vain unfold these disagreeables ? or why do 
I lose time ? If you place all the Greeks on the same footing, 
and your having heard that be enough [to undo me], this very 
instant strike the fatal blow : this the prince of Ithaca wishes, 
and the sons of Atreus would give large sums to purchase. 
Then, indeed, we grow impatient to know and to find out the 
causes, unacquainted with such consummate villany and 
Grecian artifice. He proceeds with palpitation, and speaks 
in the falsehood of his heart. After quitting Troy, the Greeks 
sought often to surmount the difficulties of their return, and, 
tired out with the length of the war, to be gone. And I wish 

alleging it was the bribe given him for his treason. Upon this presump- 
tion Palamedes was condemned by a council of war, and stoned to death. 
Vide Ovid. Met. xiii. 56. That Palamedes was thus taken off through a 
stratagem of Ulysses, was a fact probably well known to the Trojans, 

i though they might be ignorant of the colour for his being taken off. 

! Sinon, therefore, to secure the attention and belief of his hearers, very 
Lrtfully pretends that Palamedes was murdered, because he had dissuaded 
the Greeks from continuing the war against Troy. 

13 Literally, "plague-spot." B. 

14 Calchas, a famous soothsayer, who accompanied the Greeks to the 
Trojan war. 

k 2 



132 JENEID. b. ii. 110—130. 

they had ! Often did the rough tempest on the ocean bar 
their flight, and the south wind deterred them in their setting 
out. Especially when now this horse, framed of maple planks, 
was reared, storms roared through all the regions of the air. 
In perplexity we send Eurypylus 15 to consult the oracle of 
Apollo ; and from the sacred shrine he brings back this dis- 
mal response : Ye appeased the winds, O ye Greeks, with the 
blood of a virgin slain, 1Qk when first you arrived on the Trojan 
coast ; by blood must your return be purchased, and atone- 
ment made by the life of a Greek. Which intimation no 
sooner reached the 'ears of the multitude, than their minds 
were stunned, and freezing horror thrilled through their very 
bones ; [anxious to know] whom the Fates destined, whom 
Apollo demanded. Upon this Ulysses drags" forth Calchas 
the seer, with great bustle, into the midst of the crowd ; im- 
portunes him to say what that will of the gods may be ; and, 
by this time, many presaged 17 to me the cruel purpose of the 
dissembler, and quietly foresaw the event. He, for twice five 
days, is mute, and close shut up, refuses to give forth his de- 
claration against any person, or doom him to death. At length, 
with much ado, teased by the importunate clamours of Ulysses, 
he breaks silence by concert, and destines me to the altar. All 
assented, and were content to have what each dreaded for 
himself, turned off to the ruin of one poor wretch. And now 
the rueful day approached ; for me the sacred rites were pre- 
pared, and the salted cakes, and fillets [to bind] about my tem- 
ples. From death, I own, I made my escape, and broke my 
bonds ; and in a slimy fen all night I lurked obscure among 
the weeds, till they should set sail, if by chance they should 

15 Eurypylus, also a soothsayer in the Grecian camp before Troy. 

16 When the Grecian army was arrived at Aulis, ready to sail over the 
Hellespont to the siege of Troy, Diana, incensed against Agamemnon 
for killing one of her favourite deers, withheld the wind. Calchas, hav- 
ing consulted the oracles, reported that Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daughter, 
must fall a victim to appease Diana's wrath. Ulysses went and fetched 
the innocent fair, from the tender embraces of her mother, under colour 
of her being to be married to Achilles. She was brought to the altar, 
and on the point of being sacrificed, when Calchas informed that Diana 
was satisfied with this act of submission, and consented to have a deer 
substituted in room of Iphigenia ; but that she must be transported to 
Tauris, there to serve the goddess for life in quality of priestess. 

lT Canebant. Cf. Westerhov. on Ter. Heut. ii. 3, 19, who remarks that 
it is an augurial word . B . 



b. ii 137-169. yENEID. 133 

do so. Nor have I now any hope of being blessed with the 
sight of my ancient country, nor of my sweet children, and 
my much-beloved sire; whom they, perhaps, will sue to 
vengeance for my escape, and expiate this offence of mine 
by the death of those unhappy innocents. But I conjure 
you, by the powers above, by the gods who are conscious to 
truth, by whatever remains of inviolable faith are any where 
among mortals, compassionate such grievous afflictions, com- 
passionate a soul suffering unworthy treatment. 

At these tears we grant him his life, and pity him from our 
hearts. Priam himself first gives orders that the manacles 
and strait bonds be loosed from the man, then thus addresses 
him in the language of a friend : Whoever you are, now hence- 
forth forget the Greeks you have lost ; ours you shall be : and 
give me an ingenuous reply to these questions : To what 
purpose raised they this stupendous bulk of a horse? who 
was the contriver ? or what do they intend ? what was the 
religious motive ? or what warlike engine is it ? he said. The 
other, practised in fraud and Grecian artifice, lifted up to 
heaven his hands, loosed from the bonds: To you, ye ever- 
lasting orbs of fire, he says, and your inviolable divinity ; to 
you, ye altars, and horrid swords, which I escaped ; and ye 
fillets of the gods, which I a victim wore ; to you I appeal, 
that I am free to violate all the sacred obligations I was under 
to the Greeks ; I am free to hold these men in abhorrence, 
and to bring forth to light all their dark designs ; nor am I 
bound by any of the laws of my country. Only do thou, O 
Troy, abide by thy promises, and, being preserved, preserve 
thy faith ; provided I disclose the truth, provided I make thee 
large amends. 

The whole hope of the Greeks, and their confidence in the 
war begun, always depended on the aid of Pallas : but when 
fhe sacrilegious Diomede, and Ulysses the contriver of wicked 
designs, in their attempt to carry off by force from her holy 
temple the fatal Palladium, 18 having slain the guards of her 
high tower, seized her sacred image, and with bloody hands 
dared to touch the virgin fillets of the goddess ; from that day 
the hope of the Greeks began to ebb, and, losing footing, to 

18 Palladium, a celebrated statue of Pallas, said to hare fallen from 
heaven upon Troy, and on the preservation of which depended the safety 
of that city. 



134 ^NEID. b ii. 170—202. 

decline : their powers were weakened, the mind of the god- 
dess alienated : nor did Tritonia 19 show these indications [of 
her wrath] by dubious prodigies ; for scarcely was the statue 
set up in the camp, when bright flames flashed from her staring 
eye-balls, and a briny sweat flowed over her limbs ; and (won- 
derful to hear) she herself sprung thrice from the ground, 
armed as she was, with her shield and quivering spear. | Forth- 
y^with Calchas declares, that we must attempt the seas in flight, 
and that Troy can never be razed by the Grecian sword, un- 
less they repeat the omens at Argos, and carry back the god- 
dess whom they had conveyed over the sea in their curved ships. 
And now, that they have sailed for their native Mycenae with 
the wind, they are providing themselves with arms, and gods 
to accompany them ; and, having measured back the sea, they 
will come upon you unexpected : so Calchas interprets the 
omens. This figure, being warned, they reared in lieu of the 
Palladium, in lieu of the violated goddess, in order to atone 
for their direful crime. But Calchas commanded to build this 
enormous mass, and raise it to the skies, that it might not be 
admitted into the gates, or dragged into the city, nor protect 
the people under their ancient religion. For [he declared 
that] if your hands should violate this offering sacred to 
Minerva, then signal ruin (which omen may the gods rather 
turn on himself!) awaited Priam's empire and the Trojans. 
But, if by your hands it mounted into the city, that Asia, 
without further provocation given, would advance with a 
formidable war to the very walls of Pelops, and our posterity 
be doomed to the same fate. By such treachery and artifice 
of perjured Sinon, the story was believed: and we, whom 
neither Diomede, nor Larisssean 20 Achilles, nor [a siege of] 
ten years, nor a thousand 21 ships, had subdued, were insnared 
by guile and constrained tears. Here another greater scene, 
and far more terrible, is presented to our wretched sight, and 
iisturbs our unexpecting breasts. Laocoon, ordained Nep- 
tune's priest by lot, was sacrificing a stately bullock at the 

19 Tritonia, a surname of Minerva, from Tritonis, a lake and river of 
Africa, near which she had a temple. 

20 Larissaean, an epithet applied to Achilles, from Larissa, the capital 
city of Thessaly. 

21 See the commentators on ^Esch. Ag. 45. Virgil speaks in round 
numbers, for the number of ships somewhat exceeded a thousand; "but is 
variously stated B. 



M. II. 203—238. JENEID. 13o 

cJtars set apart for that solemnity ; when, lo ! from Tenedos 
(I shudder at the relation) two serpents, with orbs immense, 
bear along on the sea, and with equal motion shoot forward 
to the shore ; whose breasts erect amidst the waves, and 
crests bedropped with blood, tower above the flood ; their 
other parts sweep the sea behind, and wind their spacious 
backs in rolling spires. A loud noise is made by the briny 
ocean foaming : and now they reached the shores, and, suf- 
fused with fire and blood as to their glaring eyes, with quiver- 
ing tongues licked their hissing mouths. Half-dead with the 
sight, we fly different ways. . They, with resolute motion, 
advance towards Laocoon ; and first both serpents, with close 
embraces, twine around the little bodies of his two sons, 
and with their fangs mangle their wretched limbs. Next 
they seize himself, as he is coming up with weapons to their 
relief, and bind him fast in their mighty folds ; and now 
grasping him twice about the middle, twice winding their 
scaly backs around his neck, they overtop him by the head 
and lofty neck. He strains at once with his hands to tear 
asunder their knotted spires, while his fillets are stained with 
gore and black poison : at the same time he raises hideous 
shrieks to heaven ; such bellowing, as when a bull has fled 
wounded from the altar, and has eluded with his neck the 
missing axe. Meanwhile, the two serpents glide off to the 
high temple, and repair to the fane of stern Tritonia, and are 
sheltered under the feet of the goddess, and the orb of her 
buckler. Then, indeed, new terror diffuses itself through the 
quaking hearts of all ; and they pronounce Laocoon to have 
deservedly suffered for his crime, in having violated the sacred 
wood with his pointed weapon, and hurled his profane spear 
against its sides. They urge with general voice to convey 
the statue to its proper seat, and implore the favour of the 
goddess. We make a breach in the walls, and lay open the 
bulwarks of the city. All keenly ply the work ; and under 
the feet apply smooth-rolling wheels ; stretch hempen ropes 
from the neck. The fatal machine passes over 22 our walls, 
pregnant with arms ; boys and unmarried virgins accompany 

22 As it were " scales " the walls. Thus Ennius in Macr. Sat. vi. 2, 
"Nam maximo saltu superavit gravidus armatis equus." Cf. Stat. Silv. 
i. 1, 11 sqq. I need scarcely remark that the whole description has been 
copied by Tryphiodorus. B. 



136 JENEID. b. n. 239—272 

it with sacred hymns, and are glad to touch the rope with 
their hand. It advances, and with menacing aspect slides 
into the heart of the city. O country, O Ilium, the habitation 
of gods, and ye walls of Troy by war renowned ! Four times 
it stopped in the very threshold of the gate, and four times 
the arms resounded in its womb : yet we, heedless, and blind 
with frantic zeal, urge on, and plant the baneful monster in 
the sacred citadel. Then, too, Cassandra, 23 by the inspiration 
of the god, opens her lips to our approaching doom, never be- 
lieved by the Trojans. Unhappy we, to whom that day was 
to be the last, adorn the temples of the gods throughout the 
city with festive boughs. Meanwhile, the heavens change, 24 
and night advances rapidly from the ocean, wrapping in her 
extended shade both earth and heaven, and the wiles of the 
Myrmidons. The Trojans, dispersed about the walls, were 
hushed : deep Sleep fast binds them weary in his embraces. 
And now the Grecian host, in their equipped vessels, set out 
from Tenedos, making towards the well-known shore, by the 
friendly silence of the quiet moonshine, as soon as the royal 
[galley] stern had exhibited the signal fire ; and Sinon, pre- 
served by the will of the adverse gods, in a stolen hour un- 
locks the wooden prison to the Greeks shut up in its womb : 
the horse, from his expanded caverns, pours them forth to the 
open air; and with joy issue from the hollow wood Thessan- 
drus and Sthenelus the chiefs, and dire Ulysses, sliding down 
by a suspended rope, with Athamas and Thoas, Neoptolemus, 
the grandson of Peleus, and Machaon who led the way, with 
Menelaus, and Epeus the very contriver of the trick. They 
assault the city buried in sleep and wine. The sentinels are 
beaten down; and with opened gates they receive all their 
friends, and join the conscious bands. It was the time when 
the first sleep invades languid mortals, and steals upon them, 
by the gift of the gods, most sweet. In my sleep, lo ! Hector, 
extremely sad, seemed to stand before my eyes, and to shed 
floods of tears ; dragged, as formerly by the chariot, and black 

23 Cassandra, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba. According to the 
poets, she had the gift of prophecy, while none believed her predictions. 

24 This is according to the astronomy of the ancients, who supposed 
the heavens revolved round the earth, which remained stationary. On 
the time in which Troy was taken, cf. Petron. 89, p. 435. Tryph. 452 
eqq. B. 



b. ii. 273-307. ^NEID. 137 

with gory dust, and his swollen feet bored through with 
thongs. Ah me ! in what piteous plight he was ! how changed 
from that Hector who returned clad in the armour of Achilles, 
or darting Phrygian flames against the ships of Greece ! 
wearing a grisly beard, hair clotted with blood, and those 
many wounds which he had received under his native walls. 
I, methought, in tears addressed the hero first, and poured 
forth these mournful accents: O light 25 of Troy, O Trojans' 
firmest hope ! what tedious causes have detained thee so 
long ? Whence com est thou, my long-looked-for Hector ? 
With what joy we behold thee after the many deaths of thy 
friends, after the various disasters of men and city ! What 
unworthy cause has deformed the serenity of thy looks ? or 
why do I behold these wounds ? He [said] not a word ; nor 
regards me, questioning of what nought availed ; but heavily, 
from the bottom of his heart, drawing a groan ! Ah ! fly, 
thou goddess-born, he says, and snatch thyself from these 
flames : the enemy is in possession of the walls ; Troy falls 
from its towering tops. To Priam, to my country, all duty 
has been done. Could those walls have been saved by the 
hand, by this same hand had they been saved. Troy com- 
mends to thee her sacred things, her gods : these take com- 
panions of thy fate ; for these go in quest of a city, which, in 
process of time, you shall erect, larger of size, after a wander- 
ing voyage. He said, and with his own hands brings forth, 
from the inner temple, the fillets, the powerful Testa, and the 
fire which always burned. 

Meanwhile the city is filled with mingled scenes of woe ; 
and though my father Anchises' house stood retired, and en- 
closed with trees, louder and louder the sounds rise on the ear, 
and the horrid din of arms assails. I start from sleep, and, 
by hasty steps, gain the highest battlement of the palace, and 
stand with erect ears : as when a flame is driven by the furi- 
ous south winds on standing corn ; or as a torrent impetuously 
bursting in a mountain-flood desolates the fields, desolates the 
rich crops of corn, and the labours of the ox, and drags woods 
headlong down : the unwary shepherd, struck with the sound 

25 A beautiful imitation of Ennius, as quoted by Macrob. Sat. vi. 2, 
" O lux Trojae, germane Hector. Quid ita cum tuo lacerato corpore 
miser? Aut qui te sic respectantibus Tractavere nobis?" So Quintuo 
Calaber i. 12, calls Hector r^iap ttoAjjwv. B 



138 ^ENEID. b. ii. 308- -336. 

from the top of a high rock, stands amazed. Then, indeed, 
the truth is confirmed, and the treachery of the Greeks dis- 
closed. Now Deiphobus' 26 spacious house tumbles down, 
overpowered by the conflagration ; now, next to him, Ucale- 
gon 27 blazes: the straits of Sigasuni 28 shine far and wide with 
the flames. The shout of men and clangour of trumpets arise. 
My arms I snatch in mad haste : nor is there in arms enough 
of reason : but all my soul burns to collect a troop for the 
war, and rush into the citadel with my fellows : fury and rage 
hurry on my mind, and it occurs to me how glorious it is to 
die in arms. Lo ! then Pantheus, escaped from the sword of 
the Greeks, Pantheus, the son of Othrys, priest of the citadel 
and of Apollo, is hurrying away 29 with him the holy utensils, 
the conquered gods, and his little grandchild, and makes for 
the shore in distraction. How is it, Pantheus, with the main 
affair ? what fortress do we seize ? I had scarcely spoken, 
when, with a groan, he thus replies : Our last day is come, 
and the inevitable doom of Troy: we are Trojans no more: 
adieu to Hium, and the high renown of Teucer's race : fierce 
Jupiter hath transferred all to Argos : the Greeks bear rule 
in the burning city. The towering horse, planted in the 
midst of our streets, pours forth armed troops ; and Sinon vic- 
torious, with insolent triumph scatters the flames. Others are 
pressing at our wide-opened 30 gates, as many thousands as 
ever came from populous Micense : others with arms have 
blocked up the lanes to oppose our passage ; the edged sword, 
with glittering point, stands unsheathed, ready for dealing 
death: hardly the foremost wardens of the gates make an 
effort to fight, and resist in the blind encounter. By these 
words of Pantheus, and by the impulse of the gods, I hurry 

36 Deiphobus, a son of Priam and Hecuba, eminently distinguished 
himself in the Trojan war, and after the death of his brother Paris, mai- 
ried Helen. 

27 Ucalegon, a Trojan chief, praised for the soundness of his counsels, 
and his good intentions, though accused by some of betraying his country 
to the Greeks. 

28 Sigaeum, a famous promontory of Troas, at the entrance of the Hel- 
lespont, where the Scamander fell into the sea. Here was the tomb of 
Achilles, and near it were fought many of the battles between the Greeks 
and the Trojans. 

29 But " trahere " is properly used of little children, who follow with 
difficulty. Curt. iii. 13, 12. B*. 

30 i.e." having both valves open." B. 






B. ii. 337-365. ^ENEID. 139 

away into flames and arms ; whither the grim Fury, whither 
the din and shrieks that rend the skies, urge me on. Ripheus, 31 
and Iphitus mighty in arms, join me ; Hypanis and Dymas 
coming up with us by the light of the moon, and closely ad- 
here 32 to my side; and also young Coroebus, 33 Mygdon's son, 
who at that time had chanced to come to Troy, inflamed with 
a mad passion for Cassandra, and [in prospect, his] son-in- 
law, brought assistance to Priam and the Trojans. Ill-fated 
youth, who heeded not the admonitions of his raving spouse ! 
Whom, close united, soon as I saw resolute to engage, to ani- 
mate them the more I thus begin : " Youths, souls magnani- 
mous in vain ! if it is your determined purpose to follow me 
in this last attempt, you see what is the situation of our affairs. 
All the gods, by whom this empire stood, have deserted their 
shrines and altars abandoned [to the enemy] : you come to 
the relief of the city in flames : let us meet death, and rush 34 
into the thickest of our armed foes. The only safety for the 
vanquished is to throw away all hopes of safety." Thus the 
courage of each youth is kindled into fury. Then, like raven- 
ous wolves 35 in a gloomy fog, whom the fell rage of hunger hath 
driven forth, blind to danger, and whose whelps left behind 
long for their return with thirsting jaws; through arms, through* 
enemies, we march up to imminent death, and advance through 
the middle of the city : sable Night hovers around us with' her 
hollow shade. Who can describe in words the havoc, who the 
deaths of that night ? or who can furnish tears equal to the dis- 
asters ? Our ancient city, having borne sway for many years, 
falls to the ground : great numbers of sluggish carcasses are 

31 Ripheus was distinguished for his love of justice ; haying joined 
^Rneas the night that Troy was burnt, he was, after~ a brave resistance, 
siam by the Greeks. Dymas : this brave Trojan also joined iEneas ; but, 
being dressed in Grecian armour, was, through mistake, killed by his 
countrymen. 

32 i. e. " implicare." Nonius i. s. v. " agglomerare." B. 

33 Coroebus, a Phrygian, son of Mygdon, the brother of Hecuba. He 
assisted Priam in the Trojan war, with the hopes of being rewarded with 
the hand of Cassandra, who advised him in vain to retire from the war. 
He was slain by Peneleus. 

34 On the supposition that the gods deserted a captured city, cf. iEscli. 
Sept. cr Th. 204, aW ovv Sreovg rovg rijg oXovcttjq, 7r6\eog kKXeiirttr 
Xoyoc. See the notes, and Northmore on Tryphiod. 508. B. 

35 varepov irporepov, as Servius rightly remarks. So in Eur. Hec. 50, 

TOVTOV TTOT IrtKOV K&<pepOV CwVTjQ V7TO. B. 



140 ^NEID. b. ii. 366—401. 

?trewn up and down, both in the streets, in the houses, and the 
sacred thresholds of the gods. Nor do the Trojans alone pay 
the penalty with their blood : the vanquished too at times re- 
sume courage in their hearts, and the victorious Grecians fall : 
every where is cruel sorrow, every where terror and death in 
thousand shapes. 36 Androgeos first comes up with us, accom- 
panied by a numerous band of Greeks, unadvisedly imagining 
that we were confederate troops ; and he introduces himself to 
us with this friendly address: Haste, men; what so tardy 
sloth detains you ? Others tear and plunder the blazing towers 
of Troy: are you but just come from your lofty ships ? He 
said, and instantly perceived (for we returned him no very 
trusty answer) that he had stumbled 37 into the midst of foes. 
He was confounded, and with his words recalled his step. As 
one who, in his walk, hath trodden upon a snake unseen in the 
rough thorns, and in fearful haste hath started back from him, 
w T hile he is collecting all his rage, and swelling his azure 
crest; just so Androgeos, terrified at the sight [of us], began 
to withdraw. We rush in, and pour around with arms close 
joined, and knock them down here and there, strangers as 
they were to the place, and possessed with fear: fortune 
smiles upon our first enterprise. Upon this Coroebus, exult- 
ing with success and courage, cried out, My fellows, where 
fortune thus early points out our way to safety, and where 
she shows herself propitious, let us follow. Let us exchange 
shields, and fit to ourselves the badges of the Greeks : whether 
stratagem or valour, who questions in an enemy ? they them- 
selves will supply us with arms. This said, he puts on the 
crested helmet of Androgeos, and the rich ornament of his 
shield, and buckles to his side a Grecian sword. The same 
does Ripheus, the same does Dymas too, and all the youth 
well pleased : each arms himself with the recent spoils. We 
march on, mingling with the Greeks, but not with heaven on 
our side ; and in many a skirmish we engage during the dark 
night ; many of the Greeks we send down to Hades. Some 
fly to the ships, and hasten to the trusty shore ; some, through 
dishonest fear, scale once more the bulky horse, and lurk 

36 Thucyd. i. 81, 7raaa re icka Karkarr] Oavdrov. Cf. Tryphiodor. 
573, sqq. B. 

37 For the construction compare Muret. on Catull. iv. 2, " Ait fni^e 
naviura celerrimus." Soph. Ant. 87. Trach. 5. 



B. ii. 402— 438. ^ENEID. 141 

within the well-known womb. Alas ! on nothing ought man 
to presume, while the gods are against him ! Lo ! Cassandra, 
Priam's virgin daughter, with her hair dishevelled, was 
dragged along from the temple and shrine of Minerva, raising 
to heaven her glaring eyes in vain; her eyes — for cords 
bound her tender hands. Coroebus, in the madness of his 
soul, could not bear this spectacle, and, resolved to perish, 
threw himself into the midst of the band. We all follow, and 
rush upon them in close array. Upon this we are first over- 
powered with the darts of our friends from the high summit 
of the temple, and a most piteous slaughter ensues, through 
the appearance of our arms, and the disguise of our Grecian 
crests. Next the Greeks, through anguish and rage for the 
rescue of the virgin, fall upon us in troops from every quarter ; 
Ajax, most fierce, both the sons of Atreus, and the whole 
band of the Dolopes : as, at times, in a burst hurricane, op- 
posite winds encounter, the west and south, and Eur us, proud 
of his eastern steeds ; the woods creak, foaming Nereus rages 
with his trident, and rouses the seas from the lowest bottom. 
They, too, whom, through the shades, in the dusky night, we 
by stratagem had routed, and driven all over the city, make 
their appearance ; they are the first who discover our shield « 
and counterfeit arms, and mark our voices in sound discordant 
with their own. In a moment we are overpowered by 
numbers ; and first Coroebus sinks in death by the hand of 
Peneleus, at the altar of the warrior-goddess : Ripheus too 
falls, the most just among the Trojans, and of the strictest 
integrity : but to the gods it seemed otherwise. 38 Hypanis and 
Dymas die by the cruel darts of their own friends, nor did thy 
signal piety, nor the fillets of Apollo, save thee, Pantheus, in 
thy dying hour. Ye ashes of Troy, ye expiring flames of my 
country ! witness, that in your fall I shunned neither darts nor 
any deadly chances 39 of the Greeks ; and, had it been fated that 
I should fall, I deserved it by my hand. Thence we are forced 
away, Iphitus, Pelias, and myself (of whom Iphitus was 
now unwieldy through age, and Pelias disabled by a wound 
from Ulysses,) forthwith to Priam's palace called by the 
outcries. Here, indeed, [we beheld] a dreadful fight, as 

28 i. e. " contra," as explained by Donatus on Ter. Andr. Prol. 4. 
There is an ellipse of, " such should have been his fate, but," &c. B. 
89 i. e. "pcenas," says Burm. on Propert. i. 13, 10. B. 



142 JENEID. n. ii. 439—475 

though this had been the only seat of the war, as though none 
had been dying in all the city besides ; with such ungoverned 
fury we see Mars raging and the Greeks rushing forward to 
the palace, and the gates besieged by an advancing testudo. 
Scaling ladders are fixed against the walls, and by their steps 
they mount to the very door-posts, and protecting themselves 
by their left arms, oppose their bucklers to the darts, [while] 
with their right hands they grasp the battlements. On the 
other hand, the Trojans tear down the turrets and roofs of 
their houses ; with these weapons, since they see the ex- 
tremity, they seek to defend themselves now in their last 
death-struggle, and tumble down the gilded rafters, those 
stately ornaments of their ancestors : others with drawn swords 
beset the gates below ; these they guard in a firm, compact 
body. Our ardour is restored to relieve the royal palace, sup- 
port our friends with aid, and impart fresh strength to the 
vanquished. There was a passage, a secret entry, a free com- 
munication between the palaces of Priam, a neglected postern- 
gate, by which unfortunate Andromache, 40 while the kingdom 
stood, was often wont to resort to her parents-in-law without 
retinue, and to lead the boy Astyanax to his grand-sire. I 
mount up to the roof of the highest battlement, whence the 
distressed Trojans were hurling unavailing darts. With our 
swords assailing all around a turret, situated on a precipice, 
and shooting up its towering top to the stars, (whence we were 
wont to survey all Troy, the fleet of Greece, and all the Gre- 
cian camp,) where the topmost story made the joints more apt 
to give way, 41 we tear it from its deep foundation, and push 
it on [our foes]. Suddenly tumbling down, it brings thunder- 
ing desolation with it, and falls with wide havoc on the Gre- 
cian troops. But others succeed : meanwhile, neither stones, 
nor any sort of missile weapons, cease to fly. Just before the 
vestibule, and at the outer gate, Pyrrhus exults, glittering in 
arms and gleamy brass ; as when a snake [comes forth] to 
light, having fed on noxious herbs, whom, bloated [with poi- 
son], the frozen winter hid under the earth, now renewed, and 
sleek with youth, after casting his skin, with breast erect he 
rolls up his slippery back, reared to the sun, and brandishes a 

40 Andromache, the daughter of ^Etion, king of Thebes, in Mysia, and 
the wife of Hector, by whom she had Astyanax. 

41 It must be remembered that this tower was of wood. See Anthon. 






b. ii. 475-506. .ENE1D. 143 

three-forked tongue in his mouth. At the same time bulky 
Periphas and Automedon, charioteer to Achilles, [now Pyr- 
rhus'] armour-bearer ; at the same all the youth from Scyros 
advance to the wall, and toss brands to the roof. Pyrrhus 
himself in the front, snatching up a battle-axe, beats through 
the stubborn gates, and labours to tear the brazen posts from 
the hinges; and now, having hewn away the bars, he dug 
through the firm boards, and made a large, wide-mouthed 
breach. The palace within is exposed to view, and the long 
galleries are discovered : the sacred recesses of Priam and the 
ancient kings are exposed to view ; and they see armed men 
standing at the gate. 

As for the inner palace, it is filled with mingled groans 
and doleful uproar, and the hollow rooms all throughout howl 
with female yells : their shrieks strike the golden stars. Then 
the trembling matrons roam through Jhe spacious halls, and 
in embraces hug the door-posts, and cling to them with their 
lips. 42 Pyrrhus 43 presses on with all his father's violence: 
nor bolts, nor guards themselves, are able to sustain. The gate, 
by repeated battering blows, gives way, and the door-posts, 
torn from their hinges, tumble to the ground. The Greeks 
make their way by force, burst a passage, and, being admitted, 
butcher the first they meet, and fill the places all about with 
their troops. Not with such fury a river pours on the fields 
its heavy torrent, and sweeps away herds with their stalls over 
all the plains, when foaming it has burst away from its broken 
banks, and borne down opposing mounds with its whirling 
current. I myself have beheld Neoptolemus raving with bloody 
rage, and the two sons of Atreus at the gate : I have beheld 
Hecuba, and her hundred daughters-in law, and Priam at the 
altar, defiling with his blood the fires which himself had con- 
secrated. 44 Those fifty bed-chambers, so great hopes of de- 
scendants, those doors, that proudly shone with barbaric gold 
and spoils, were levelled with the ground : where the flames 
relent, the Greeks take place. 

Perhaps, too, you are curious to hear what was Priam's 

42 Cf. Soph. Phil. 535, liofisv, a> iraT, 7rpo<ricvcravTe ^tjv Icrw "Aoiicoy 

HGOlKr]GlV. B. 

43 Pyrrhus, also called Neoptolemus, was the son of Achilles and Dei- 
damia daughter of King Lycomedes. His cruelty exceeded even that of 
his father. 

44 Ennius in Cicer. T. Q. iii. in Scriver. Coll. p. 19, " Hasc omnia vidl 
inflammari : Priamo vi vitam evitari . Jovis aram sanguine turpari." B. 



144 JENEID. b. n. 507—539 

fate. As soon as he "beheld the catastrophe of the taken city, 
and his palace gates broken down, and the enemy planted in 
the middle of his private apartments, the aged monarch, 
with unavailing aim, buckles on his shoulders (trembling with 
years) arms long disused, girds himself with his useless sword, 
and rushes into the thickest of the foes, resolute on death. In 
the centre of the palace, 45 and under the bare canopy of hea- 
ven, stood a large altar, and an aged laurel near it, overhang- 
ing the altar, and encircling the household gods with its 
shade. Here Hecuba and her daughters (like pigeons flying 
precipitantly from a blackening tempest) crowded together, 
and embracing the shrines of the gods, vainly sat round the 
altars. But as soon as she saw Priam clad in youthful arms, 
unhappy spouse, she cries, What dire purpose has prompted 
thee to brace on these arms ? or whither art thou hurrying ? 
The present conjuncture hath no need of such aid, nor such 
defence : though even my Hector himself were here [it would 
not avail]. Hither repair, now that all hope is lost; this 
altar will protect us all, or here you [and we] shall die toge- 
ther. Having thus said, she took the old man to her em- 
braces, and placed him on the sacred seat. But lo ! Polites, 
one of Priam's sons, who had escaped from the sword of 
Pyrrhus, through darts, through foes, flies along the long ■ 
galleries, and wounded traverses the waste halls. Pyrrhus, 
all on fire, pursues him with the hostile weapon, is just 
grasping him with his hand, and presses on him with the 
spear. Soon as he at length got into the sight and presence 
of his parents, he dropped down, and poured out his life with 
a stream of blood. Upon this, Priam, though now held in the 
very midst of death, yet did not forbear, nor spared his tongue 
and passion: But 46 may the gods, he cries, if there be any 
justice in heaven to regard such events, give ample retribu- 
tion and due reward for this wickedness, for these thy auda- 
cious crimes, to thee who hast made me to witness 47 the death 
of my own son, and defiled a father s eyes with the sight of 

45 The impluvium is meant, Priam's palace forming a square court. 
Cf. Athen. v. 3, 'O/j-rjpbg dk rr)v avXijv del rdrru Itti tGjv V7rai0pu)v totcojv, 
tvOa rjv 6 tov 'Eptceiov Ztjvoq (3u)/j,6g. B. 

46 For this use of " at " in reproaches, cf. Ovid. Her. xii. 1, "At tibi 
Colchorum (memini) regina vacavi." Catull. iii. 13, " At vobis male sit, 
malae tenebrae." B. 

47 " Cernere fecisti " is a Lucretian form of expression. Cf. Lucr. iii. 
101 ; " faciat vivere," 302, vi. 26] . B. 



B. it. 539— 573. JSNEID. li5 

blood: yet he from whom you falsely claim your birth, even 
Achilles, was not thus barbarous to Priam, 48 though his enemy, 
but paid some reverence to the laws of nations, and a sup- 
pliant's right, restored my Hector's lifeless corpse to be buried, 
and sent me back into my kingdom. Thus spoke the old man, 
and, without any force, threw a feeble dart: which was in- 
stantly repelled by the hoarse brass, and hung on the highest 
boss of the buckler without any execution. To whom Pyrrhus 
replies, These tidings then yourself shall bear, and go with 
the message to my father, the son of Peleus : forget not to 
inform him of my cruel deeds, and of his degenerate son 
Neoptolemus : now die. With these words he dragged him 
to the very altar, trembling and sliding in the streaming gore 
of his son : and with his left hand grasped his twisted hair, 
and with his right unsheathed his glittering sword, and 
plunged it into his side up to the hilt. Such was the end of 
Priam's fate : this was the final doom allotted to him, having 
before his eyes Troy consumed, and its towers laid in ruins ; 
once the proud monarch over so many nations and countries of 
Asia : now his mighty trunk lies extended on the shore, the 
head torn from the shoulders, and a nameless corpse. 49 Then, 
and not till then, fierce horror assailed me round: I stood 
aghast ; the image of my dear father arose to my mind, when 
I saw the king, of equal age, breathing out his soul by a cruel 
wound ; Creiisa, 50 forsaken, came into mind, my rifled house, 
and the fate of the little Iiilus. I look about, and survey 
what troops were to stand by me. All had left me through 
despair, and flung their fainting bodies to the ground, or gave 
them to the flames. And thus now I remained all alone, 
when I espy Helen keeping watch in the temple of Vesta, 
and silently lurking in a secret corner : the bright flames give 
me light as I am roving on, and throwing my eyes around on 
every object. She, the common Fury of Troy and her 
country, dreading the Trojans, her deadly foes, upon account of 
their ruined country, and the vengeance of the Greeks, with 

48 " In hoste " is for " erga hostem." See Broukh. on Tibull. iii. 6, 
19. B. 

49 See my note on iEsch. Choeph. 437. B. 

50 Creiisa, daughter of Priam, and the wife of iEneas, who was lost in 
the streets of Troy, when iEneas made his escape with his father Ai> 
cliises and his son Ascanius. 

L 



146 .ENEID. b. ii. 574— CIO. 

the fierce resentment of her deserted lord, had hidden herself, 
and was sitting near the altars, an odious sight. Flames were 
kindled in my soul : rage possessed me to avenge my falling 
country, and take the vengeance her guilt deserved. Shall 
she then with impunity behold Sparta and her country My- 
cenae, and go off a queen, after she has gained her triumph ? 
shall she see her marriage-bed, her home, her fathers, her sons, 
accompanied with a retinue of Trojan dames and Phrygian 
women her slaves? shall Priam have fallen by the sword, 
shall Troy have burnt with the flame, shall the Trojan shore 
so often be drenched in blood ? It must not be so : for though 
there be no memorable name in punishing a woman, nor any 
honour in such a victory, yet shall I be applauded for having 
extinguished a wicked wretch, and for inflicting on her the 
punishment she deserves: besides, it will be a pleasure to 
gratify my desire of burning revenge, and to give satisfaction 
to the ashes of my friends. Thus was I rapidly reflecting, 
and furiously agitated in my soul, when my benign mother 
presented herself to my view with such brightness as I had 
never seen before, and amidst the night shone forth in pure 
light, displaying all the goddess, with such dignity, such sta- 
ture, as she is wont to show to the immortals : she restrained 
me fast held by the right hand, and besides, let fall these 
words from her rosy lips : My son, what high provocation 
kindles thy ungoverned rage? why art thou raving? or 
whither art thy regards to me fled ? Will you not first see 
in what situation you have left your father Anchises, encum- 
bered with age ? whether your spouse Creiisa be in life, and 
the boy Ascanius, around whom the Grecian troops from 
-every quarter reel ? and, do not my care oppose, the flames 
will have already carried off, or the cruel sword imbibed their 
blood. Not the features of Lacedaemonian Helen, odious in 
your eyes, nor Paris blamed ; but the gods, the unrelenting 
gods, overthrow this powerful realm, and level the towering 
tops of Troy with the ground. Turn your eyes; for I 
will dissipate every cloud which now, intercepting the view, 
bedims your mortal sight, and spreads a humid veil of mist 
around you : fear not you the commands of a parent, nor re- 
cuse to obey her orders. Here, where you see scattered ruins, 
and stones torn from stones, and smoke in waves ascending 
with mingled dust, .Neptune shakes the walls and foundations 



*. it. 611—639. 2ENEID. 147 

loosened by his mighty trident, and overturns the whole city 
from its basis. Here Juno, extremely fierce, is posted in the 
front to guard the Scaean 51 gate, and, girt with the sword, 
with furious summons calls from the ships her social band. 
Tritonian Pallas (see !) hath now planted herself on a lofty tur- 
ret, refulgent in a cloud, and with her Gorgon 52 terrible. The 
Sire himself supplies the Greeks with courage and strength 
for victory : himself stirs up the gods against the arms of 
Troy. Speed thy flight, my son, and put a period to thy toils. 
In every danger I will stand by you, and safe set you down 
in your father's palace. She said, and hid herself in the thick 
shades of night. Direful forms appear, and the mighty powers 
of the gods, adverse to Troy. Then, indeed, all Ilium seemed 
to me at once to sink in the flames, and Troy, built by Nep- 
tune, to be overturned from its lowest foundation: even as 
when with emulous keenness the swains labour to fell an 
ash that long hath stood on a high mountain, hewing it about 
with iron and many an axe, ever and anon it threatens, and 
waving its locks, 53 nods with its shaken t^jtilL- gradually by 
wounds subdued, it hath groaned itrfes^and torn from the 
ridge of the mountain, draws along with it ruin. Down I 
come, and under the conduct of the god, clear my way amidst 
flames and foes : the darts give place, and the flames retire. 
And now, when arrived at the gates of my paternal seat and an- 
cient house, my father, whom I was desirous first to remove to 
the high mountains, and whom I first sought, obstinately re- 
fuses to prolong his life after the ruin of Troy, and to suffer exile. 
You, says he, who are full of youthful blood, and whose powers 

51 Scsean gate, one of the gates of Troy, where the tomb of Laomedon 
was seen. 

52 Gorgon, Medusa, whose head Perseus cut off and presented to 
Minerva, who placed it on her aegis, with which she turned into stone all 
such as fixed their eyes upon it. The Gorgons were the three daughters 
of Phorcys and Ceto ; their hair, according to the ancients, was entwined 
with serpents. Medusa was the only one of them who was subject to 
mortality. 

53 Comam — nutat. Virgil, considering a tree in analogy to the human 
body, calls the extended boughs its arms, brachia, Georg. ii. 296, 368, 
end here its leaves, comam, hair, or iocks. So also Milton, Paradise Lost, 
*. 1065, 

while the winds 

Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks 

Of those fair spreading trees — 

l 2 



148 iENEID. b. ii. 640—673 

remain firm in all their strength, do you attempt your flight. 
As for me, had the powers of heaven designed I should pro- 
long my life, they had preserved to me this house : enough 
it is, and more than enough, that I have seen one catastrophe, 
and outlived the taking of this city. Thus, oh leave me thus 
with the last farewell to my body laid in its dying posture. 
With this hand will I find death myself. The enemy will 
pity me, and lust for my spoils. Trivial is the loss of sepul- 
ture. I have long since been lingering out a length of 

O CD Cj O 

years, hated by the gods, and useless from the time when the 
father of gods, and sovereign of men, blasted me with the 
winds of his thunder, and struck me with lightning. 

Such purpose declaring, he persisted, and remained un- 
alterable. On the other hand, I, my wife Creiisa, Ascanius, 
and the whole family, bursting forth into tears, [besought] my 
father not to involve all with himself, nor hasten our impend- 
ing fate. He still refuses, and perseveres in his purpose, and 
in the same settled position. Once more I fly to my arms, 
and, in extremity of distress, long for death : for what expedi- 
ent had I left, or what chance of hope ? Could you hope, sire, 
that I could stir one foot while you were left behind ? could 
such impiety drop from a parent's lips ? If it is the will of 
the gods that nothing of this great city be preserved ; if this 
be your settled purpose, ; and you will even involve yourself 
and yours in the wreck of Troy ; the way lies open to that 
death of which you are so fond. Forthwith Pyrrhus, [reek- 
ing] from the effusion of Prianrs blood, will be here, who 
kills the son before the father's eyes, and then the father at 
the altar. Was it for this, my benign mother, you saved me 
through darts, through flames, to see the enemy in the midst 
of these recesses, and to see Ascanius, my father, and Creiisa 
by his side, butchered in one another's blood ? Arms, my 
men, bring arms ; this day, which is our last, calls upon us, 
vanquished as we are. Give me back to the Greeks : let me 
visit once more the fight renewed : never shall we all die un- 
revenged this day. 54 

Thus I again gird on my sword : and I thrust my left hand 
into my buckler, bracing it fitly on, and rushed out of the 
palace. But lo ! my wife clung to me in the threshold, grasp- 

54 Donatus quotes this line to illustrate the threatening use of " hodie," 
on Ter. Andr. i. 2, 25 ; ii. 4, 7, &c. So Plaut. Cure. v. 3, 11. B. 



a. ii. 674—709. JENEID. 149 

ing my feet, and held out to his father the little lulus : If, 
[says she,] you go with a resolution to perish, snatch us with 
you to share all : but if, from experience, you repose con- 
fidence in those arms you have assumed, let this house have 
your first protection : To whom are you abandoning the ten- 
der lulus, your sire, and me once called your wife ? Thus 
loudly expostulating, she filled the whole palace with her 
groans, when a sudden and wondrous prodigy arises : for amid 
the embraces and parting words of his mourning parents, lo ! 
the fluttering tuft from the top of lulus' head is seen to emit 
light, and with gentle touch the lambent flame glides harmless 
along his hair, and feeds around his temples. We, quaking, 
trembled for fear, brush the blazing locks, and quench the 
holy fire with fountain-water. But father Anchises 55 joyful 
raised his eyes to the stars, and stretched his hands to heaven 
with his voice ; Almighty Jove, if thou art moved with any 
supplications, vouchsafe to regard us ; we ask no more : and 
O sire, if by our piety we deserve it, grant us then thy aid, 
and ratify these omens. Scarcely had my aged sire thus 
said, when, with a sudden peal, it thundered on the left, and a 
star, that fell from the skies, drawing a fiery train, shot 
through the shade with a profusion of light. We could see 
it, gliding over the high tops of the palace, lose itself in the 
woods of Mount Ida, full in our view, and marking out the 
way : then all along its course an indented path shines, and 
all the place, a great way round, smokes with sulphureous 
steams. And now my father, overcome, raises himself to 
heaven, addresses the gods, and pays adoration to the holy star : 
Now, now is no delay : I am all submission, and where you 
lead the way I am with you. Ye gods of my fathers, save 
our family, save my grandson. From you this omen came, 
and Troy is at your disposal. Now, son, I resign myself in- 
deed, nor refuse to accompany you in your expedition. He said, 
and now throughout the city the flames are more distinctly 
heard, and the conflagration rolls the torrents of fire nearer. 
Come then, dearest father, place yourself on my neck ; with 
these shoulders will I support you, nor shall that burden op- 
press me. However things fall out, we both shall share either 

55 Anchises, the son of Capys, by Themis, daughter of Ilus. His son 
/Eneas saved his life by carrying him on his shoulders through the flames,, 
when Troy was on fire. 



150 ^ENEID. b. ii. 710-747. 

one common danger or one preservation : let the boy lulus be. 
my companion, and my wife may trace my steps at some dis- 
tance. Ye servants, needfully attend to what I say. In your 
way from the city is a rising ground, and an ancient temple 
of deserted Ceres ; 56 and near it an aged cypress, preserved 
for many years by the religious veneration of our forefathers. 
To this one seat by several ways we will repair. Do you, 
father, take in thy hand the sacred symbols, and the gods of 
our country. For me, just come from war, from so fierce and 
recent bloodshed, to touch them would be profanation, till I 
have purified myself in the living stream. This said, I spread 
a garment and a tawny lion's hide over my broad shoulders 
and submissive neck ; and stoop to the burthen : little lulus 
is linked in my right hand, and trips after his father with 
unequal steps : my spouse comes up behind. We haste away 
through the gloomy paths : and I, whom lately no showers of 
darts could move, nor Greeks enclosing me in a hostile band, 
am now terrified with every breath of wind; 57 every sound 
alarms me anxious, and equally in dread for my companion 
and my burthen. By this time I approached the gates, and 
thought I had overpassed all the way, when suddenly a thick 
sound of feet seems to invade my ears just at hand ; and my 
father, stretching his eyes through the . gloom, calls aloud, 
Fly, fly, my son, they are upon you: I see the burnished 
shields and glittering brass. Here, in my consternation, some 
unfriendly deity or other confounded and bereaved me of my 
reason ; for while in my journey I trace the by-paths, and 
forsake the known beaten tracks, alas ! I know not whether 
my wife Creiisa was snatched from wretched me by cruel fate, 
or lost her way, or through fatigue stopped short ; nor did 
these eyes ever see her more. Nor did I observe that she 
was lost, or reflect with myself, till we were come to the rising 
ground, and the sacred seat of ancient Ceres : here, at length, 
when all were convened, she alone was wanting, and gave 
disappointment to all our retinue, especially to her son and 
husband. Whom did I frantic not accuse, of gods or men ? 
or of what more cruel scene was I a spectator in all the 
desolation of the city ? To my friends I commend Ascanius, 

56 i. e. neglected during the war. See Anthon. B. 
67 Silhis vi. 58, " Sonus omnis et aura Exterrent, pennaque levi com* 
muta volucris." B. 



p. ii. 748—781. .ENEID. 15] 

iny father Anchises, with the gods of Troy, and lodge them 
secretly in a winding valley. I myself repair back to the 
city, and brace on my shining armour. I am resolved to re- 
new every adventure, revisit all the quarters of Troy, and 
expose my life once more to all dangers. First of all, I re- 
turn to the walls, and the dark entry of the gate by which I 
had set out, and backward unravel my steps with care amidst 
the darkness, and run them over with my eye. Horror on all 
sides, and at the same time the very silence affrights my soul. 
Thence homeward I bent my way, lest by chance, by any 
chance, she had moved thither : the Greeks had now r^hed 
in, and were masters of the whole house. In a moment the 
devouring conflagration is rolled up in sheets by the wind to 
the lofty roof; the flames mount above; the fiery whirlwind 
rages to the skies. I advance, and revisit Priam's royal seat, 
and the citadel. And now in the desolate cloisters, Juno's 
sanctuary, Phcenix and the execrable Ulysses, a chosen guard, 
were watching the booty : hither, from all quarters, the pre- 
cious Trojan moveables, saved from the conflagration of the 
temples, the tables of the gods, the massy golden goblets, 
and plundered vestments, are amassed: boys, and timorous 
matrons, stand all around in a long train. Now adventuring 
even to dart my voice through the shades, I filled the streets 
with outcry, and in anguish, with vain repetition, again and 
again, called on Creiisa. While I was in this search, and with 
incessant fury ranging through all quarters of the town, the 
mournful ghost and shade of my Creiisa's self appeared be- 
fore my eyes, her figure larger than I had known it. I stood 
aghast ! my hair rose on end, and my voice clung to my jaws. 
Then thus she bespeaks me, and relieves my cares with these 
words: My darling spouse, what pleasure have you thus to 
indulge a grief which is but madness ? These events do not 
occur without the will of the gods. It is not allowed you 
to carry Creiisa hence to accompany you, nor is it permitted 
by the great ruler of heaven supreme. In long banishment 
you must roam, and plough the vast expanse of the ocean : to 
the land of Hesperia you shall come, where the Lydian 58 
Tiber, w T ith his gentle current, glides through a rich land of 

58 Lydian Tiber ; the epithet is applied to the Tiber, because it passes 
clong the borders of Etruria, whose inhabitants were once a Lydian 
olony. 



152 . ^ENEID. b. ii. 782— 804. in. 1—8. 

heroes. There, prosperous state, a crown, and royal spouse, 
await you : dry up your tears for your beloved Creusa. I, of 
Dardanus' noble line, and the daughter-in-law of divine Venus, 
shall not see the proud seats of the Myrmidons and Dolopes> 
nor go to serve the Grecian dames ; but the great mother of 
the gods detains me upon these coasts. And now farewell, 
and preserve your affection to our common son. 

With these words she left me in tears, ready to say many 
things, and vanished into thin air. There thrice I attempted 
to throw my arms around her neck; thrice the phantom, 
grasped in vain, escaped my hold, swift as the winged winds, 
and resembling most a fleeting dream. Thus having spent 
the night, I at length revisit my associates. And here, to my 
surprise, I found a great confluence of new companions : ma- 
trons, and men, and youths, drawn together to share our exile, 
a piteous throng ! From all sides they convened, resolute [to 
follow me] with their souls and fortunes, into whatever coun- 
try I was inclined to conduct them over the sea. By this time, 
the bright morning star was rising on the craggy tops of lofty 
Ida, and ushered in the day : the Greeks held the entrance of 
the gates blocked up ; nor had we any prospect of relief. 
I gave way, and bearing up my father, made towards the 
mountain. 

book in. 

In the Third Book, JEneas continues his narration, by a minute account of 
his voyage, the places he visited, and the perils he encountered, from the 
time of leaving the shores of Troas, until he landed at Drepanum, in Sicily, 
where he buried his father. — This Book, which comprehends a period of 
about seven years, ends with the dreadful storm, with the description of 
which the First Book opened. 

After it had seemed fit to the gods to overthrow the power 
of Asia, and Priam's race, undeserving [of such a fate], and 
stately Ilium fell, and while the whole of Troy, built by Nep- 
tune, smokes on the ground ; we are determined, by revelations 
from the gods, to go in quest of distant retreats in exile, and 
unpeopled lands; we fit out a fleet just under the walls of 
Antandros x and the mountains of Phrygian Ida ; and draw 
our forces together, uncertain whither the Fates point our way, 
where it shall be given us to settle. Scarcely had the firyt 
1 Antandros, a city of Troas, in the Gulf of Adramyttium. 



3. Hi. 9—40. -&NEID. 153 

summer begun, when my father Anchises gave command to 
hoist the sails, in accordance with the Fates. Then with tears 
I leave the shores and ports of my country, and the plains 
where Troy once stood : an exile I launch forth into the deep, 
with my associates, my son, my household gods, and the great 
gods [of my country]. 

At a distance lies a martial land, peopled throughout its 
wide-extended plains, (the Thracians cultivate the soil,) over 
which in former times fierce Lycurgus 2 reigned : an ancient 
hospitable retreat for Troy, and whose gods were leagued with 
ours, while fortune was with us. Hither I am carried, and 
erect my first walls along the winding shore, entering with 
Fates unkind; and from my own name I call the citizens 
iEneades. I was performing sacred rites to my mother Venus, 
and the gods, the patrons of my works begun ; and to the ex- 
alted king of the immortals I was sacrificing a sleek bull on 
the shore. Near at hand there chanced to be a rising ground, 
on whose top were young cornel-trees, and a myrtle rough 
with thick spear-like branches. I came up to it, and attempt- 
ing to tear from the earth the verdant wood, that I might 
cover the altars with the leafy boughs, I observe a dreadful 
prodigy, and wondrous to relate. For from that tree which 
first is torn from the soil, its rooted fibres being burst asunder, 
drops of black blood distil, and stain the ground with gore : 
cold terror shakes my limbs, and my chill blood is congealed 
with fear. I again essay to tear off a limber bough from an- 
other, and thoroughly explore the latent cause : and from the 
rind of that other the purple blood descends. Raising in my 
mind many an anxious thought, I with reverence besought the 
rural nymphs, and father Mars, who presides over the Thra- 
cian territories, kindly to prosper the vision 3 and avert evil 
from the omen. But when I attempted the boughs a third 
time with a more vigorous effort, and on my knees struggled 
against the opposing mould, (shall I speak, or shall I forbear ?) 
a piteous groan is heard from the bottom of the rising ground, 
and a voice sent forth reaches my ears : JEneas, why dost thou 

2 Lycmgus, a king of Thrace, son of Dryas, who, it is said, drove Bac- 
chus out of his kingdom. 

3 For " visa," which is used in the same phrase by Silius, viii. 124. 
Lucan. i. 635. On the myrtle-tomb of Polydore, compare Auson. 
Epitaph. Her. xix. 



154 ^NEID. *. in. 41— 6& 

tear an unhappy wretch ? Spare me, now that I am in my 
grave ; forbear to pollute with guilt thy pious hands : Troy 
brought me forth no stranger to you ; nor is it from the trunk 
this blood distils. Ah, fly this barbarous land, fly the ava- 
ricious shore! 'For Polydore 4 am I: here an iron crop of 
darts hath overwhelmed me, transfixed, and over me shot up 
in pointed javelins. Then, indeed, depressed at heart with 
perplexing fear, I was stunned ; my hair stood on end, and 
my voice clung to my jaws. This Polydore unhappy Priam 
had formerly sent in secrecy with a great weight of gold to 
be brought up by the king of Thrace, when he now began 5 
to distrust the arms of Troy, and saw the city with close siege 
blocked up. He, as soon as the power of the Trojans were 
crushed, and their fortune gone, espousing Agamemnon's 
interest and victorious arms, breaks every sacred bond, assas- 
sinates Polydore, and by violence possesses his gold. Cursed 
thirst of gold, to what dost thou not drive the hearts* of men ! 
After fear left my bones, I report the portents of the gods to 
our chosen leaders, and chiefly to my father, and demand 
what their opinion is. All are unanimous to quit that ac- 
cursed land, abandon the polluted society, and spread the sails 
to the winds. Therefore we renew funeral ceremonies to 
Polydore, and a large mound of earth is heaped up for the 
tomb : an altar is reared to his manes, mournfully decked 
with leaden-coloured wreaths and gloomy cypress ; and 
round it the Trojan matrons stand with hair dishevelled ac- 
cording to custom. We offer the sacrifices of the dead, bowls 
foaming with warm milk, and goblets of the sacred blood : we 
give the soul repose in the grave, and with loud voice address 
to him the last farewell. 6 

* Polydorus, the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba, was assassinated 
by Polymnestor, king of Thrace, who had been intrusted with the care 
of the young prince. 

5 Eur. Hec. ii. iv\ el tcot 'iXlov rsixrf tt&goi, I need scarcely refer 
the reader to the whole passage. B. 

6 I have illustrated this custom in my notes on Eurip. Alcest. 610. 
Ausonius Parent. 159, 10, " Voce ciere animas funeris instar habet. 
Gaudent compositi cineres sua nomina dici. . . . Nomine ter dicto paene 
sepultus erit." On the funeral offerings here described, see my notes ou 
Much. Pers. p. 83, ed. Bohn. Statius, Theb. vi. 209, " Spumantesque 
mero paterae verguntur, et atri Sanguinis, et rapti gratissima cymbia lac- 
tis." Alcseus Mess, in Brunck. Annal. i. p. 490, /cat tciQov vxpujcravro 
ydXciKTi de Troifikveg aiyuv'Eppavav, ZavOqi yn^diitvoi fxkXiTL. B. 



b. in. 69— 101. JSNEID. 155 

This done, when first we durst confide in the main, when 
the winds present peaceful seas, and the south wind in soft 
whispering gales invites us to the deep, my mates launch the 
ships and crowd the shore. We are wafted from the port, 
and the land and cities retreat. 

Amidst the sea there lies a charming spot of land, sacred to 
[Doris], (the mother of the Nereids,) and iEgean Neptune ; 
which once wandering about the coasts and shores, the piour 
god who wields the bow fast bound with high Gyaros 7 and 
Mycone, and fixed it so as to be habitable, and mock the 
winds. Hither I am led : this most peaceful island receives 
us to a safe port after our fatigue. At landing we pay vener- 
ation to the city of Apollo. King Anius, 8 both king of men 
and priest of Phoebus, his temples bound with fillets and sa- 
cred laurel, comes up, and presently recognises his old friend 
Anchises. We join right hands in amity, and come under his 
roof. I venerated the temple of the god, a structure of ancient 
stone, [and thus began] : Thymbraean Apollo, grant us, after 
all our toils, some fixed mansion ; grant us walls of defence, 
offspring, and a permanent city : preserve those other towers 
of Troy, a remnant left by the Greeks and merciless Achilles. 
Whom are we to follow ; or whither dost thou bid us go ? 
where fix our residence ? Father, grant us a prophetic sign, 
and glide into our minds. Scarcely had I thus said, when 
suddenly all seemed to tremble, both the temple itself, and 
laurel of the god ; the whole mountain quaked around, and 
the sanctuary being exposed to view, the tripod moaned. In 
humble reverence we fall to the ground, and a voice reaches 
our ears : Ye hardy sons of Dardanus, the same land which 
first produced you from your forefather's stock, shall receive 
you in its fertile bosom after all your dangers; search out 
your ancient mother. There the family of ^Eneas shall rule 
over every coast, and his children's children, and they who 
from them shall spring. 

Thus Phoebus. Emotions of great joy, with mingled tu- 
mult, arose ; and all were seeking to know what city is de- 
signed ; whither Phoebus calls us wandering, and wills us to 

7 Gyaros and Mycone, two of the islands called the Cyclades, in the 
iEgean Sea. 

8 Anius, the son of Apollo and Rhea, was king of Delos, and father of 
Andrus. 



156 ^NEID. b. in. 102— 127 

return. Then my father, revolving the historical records of 
ancient heroes, says, Ye leaders, give ear, and learn what you 
have to hope for. In the middle of the sea lies Crete, the 
island of mighty Jupiter, where is Mount Ida, and the nursery 
of our race. The Cretans inhabit a hundred mighty cities, 
most fertile realms : whence our mighty ancestor Teucrus, if 
I rightly remember the tradition, first arrived on the Rhoetean 
coasts, 9 and chose the seat of his kingdom. No Hium then 
nor towers of Pergamus 10 were raised ; in the deep vales they 
dwelt. Hence came mother Cybele, the patroness of the 
earth, and the brazen cymbals of the Corybantes, 11 and the 
Idaean grove ; hence that faithful secrecy in her sacred rites ; 
and harnessed lions were yoked in the chariot of their queen. 
Come, then, and, where the commands of the gods point out 
our way, let us follow ; let us appease the winds, and seek the 
Gnossian realms. Nor lie they at the distance of a long 
voyage : provided Jove be with us, the third day will land 
our fleet on the Cretan coast. 

This said, he offered the proper sacrifices on the altars, a 
bull to Neptune, a bull to thee, O fair Apollo : a black sheep 
to the Winter, and a white one to the propitious zephyrs. A 
report flies abroad, that leader Idomeneus 12 banished, hath 
quitted his paternal kingdom, and that the shore of Crete is 
deserted; that its mansions are free from the enemy, and 
palaces stand forsaken. We leave the port of Ortygia, 13 and 
scud along the sea : we cruise along Naxos, (on whose moun- 
tains the Bacchanals revel,) green Donysa, 14 Olearos, snowy 
Paros, and the Cyclades scattered up and down the main, and 
narrow seas thick-sown with clustered islands. With various 

9 Rhoetean coasts ; Trojan coasts, from Rhoeteum, a promontory of 
Troas, on the Hellespont, near which the body of Ajax was buried. 

10 Pergamus, the citadel of Troy, often used for Troy itself. 

11 Corybantes, the priests of Cybele. 

12 Idomeneus, king of Crete, the son of Deucalion. Having left Crete 
after kis return from the Trojan war, he came to Italy, and founded the 
city of Salentum on the coast of Calabria. 

13 Ortygia, an ancient name of the island of Delos, where was a famous 
temple and oracle of Apollo. Naxos, a celebrated island of the ^Egean 
Sea, the largest and most fertile of all the Cyclades. 

14 Donysa, one of the Cyclades famed for producing green marble, as 
Paros was for white marble. Olearos, (Antiparos,) one of the Cyclades, 
south-west of Paros. Cyclades, islands in the ^Egean Sea, about fifty in 
number, encircling Delos. 



B. in. 125—162. .ENE1D. 157 

emulation the seamen's shouts arise. The crew animate one 
another : For Crete and our ancestors let us speed our course. 
A wind springing up astern, accompanies us on our way, and 
we at length skim along to the ancient seats of the Curetes. 
Therefore, with eagerness, I raise the walls of the so-much- 
wished for city, and call it the city of Pergamus ; and I ex- 
hort my colony, pleased with the name, to love their hearths, 
and erect turrets on their roofs. And now the ships were 
mostly drawn up on the dry beach : the youth were engaged 
in their nuptials and new settlements ; I was beginning to 
dispense laws and appropriate houses ; when suddenly, from 
the infection of the climate, a wasting and lamentable plague 
seized our limbs, the trees, and corn ; and the year was 
pregnant with death. Men left their sweet lives, or dragged 
along their sickly bodies : at the same time the dog-star 
burned up the barren fields : the herbs were parched, and the 
unwholesome grain denied us sustenance. My father ad- 
vises, that, measuring back the sea, we again apply to the 
oracle of Ortygia, and Apollo, and implore his grace, [to 
know] what end he will bring to our forlorn state ; whence 
he will bid us attempt a redress of our calamities, whither 
turn our course. 

It was night, and sleep reigned over all the animal world. 
The sacred images of the gods, and the tutelar deities of 
Phrygia, whom I had brought with me from Troy and the 
midst of the flames, were seen to stand before my eyes while 
slumbering, 15 conspicuous by a glare of light, where the full 
moon darted her beams through the inserted windows. Then 
they thus [seemed to] address me, and dispel my cares with 
these words : What Apollo would announce to you, were you 
wafted to Ortygia, he here reveals, and lo ! unasked, he sends 
us to your dwelling. We, after Troy was consumed, followed 
thee and thy arms ; under thy conduct we have crossed the 
swelling sea in ships : we too will exalt thy future Face to 
heaven, and give imperial power to thy city. Do thou pre- 
pare walls mighty for mighty inhabitants, and shrink not 
from the long labours of thy voyage. You must change your 
place of residence : these are not the shores that Delian Apollo 
advises for you ; nor was it in Crete he commanded you to 

*-■* I read " iu somnis," not " insomnis." See Anthoii. B. 



158 -ENEID. b. in. 163— 195. 

settle. There is a place, (the Greeks call it Hesperia by name,) 
an ancient country, powerful in arms and fertility of soil : the 
CEnotrians peopled it once ; now there is a report, thrt their 
descendants have called the nation Italy, from the founder's 
name. These are our proper settlements : hence Dardanus 
sprang, and father Iasius, 16 from which prince our race is de- 
rived. Haste, arise, and with joy report to thy aged sire these 
intimations of unquestionable credibility : search out Coritus 17 
and the Ausonian lands ; Jupiter forbids thee the Cretan ter- 
ritories. 

Astonished by this vision and declaration of the gods (nor 
was that a sound sleep, but methought I clearly discerned their 
aspect before me, their fillet-bound locks, and their forms full 
in my view ; then a cold sweat flowed over my whole body) ; 
I snatch my frame from the couch, and lift up my hand supine 
to heaven with my voice, and pour hallowed offerings on the 
fires. Having finished the sacrifice, with joy I certify An- 
chises, and disclose the fact in order. He recognised the dou- 
ble stock, and the double founders [of the Trojan race], and 
that he had been deceived by a modern mistake respecting 
ancient countries; then he thus bespeaks me: My son, piac- 
tised in woe by the fates of Troy, Cassandra alone predicted 
to me that such was to be our fortune. Now I recollect that 
she foretold this should be the destiny of our race, and 
that she often spoke of Hesperia, often of the realms of Italy. 
But who could believe that the Trojans were to come to the 
Hesperian shore ? or whom then did the prophetic Cassandra 
influence ? Let us resign ourselves to Phoebus, and, since 
we are better advised, let us follow. He said ; and, exulting, 
we all obey his orders. This realm we likewise quit, and, 
leaving a few behind, unfurl our sails, and bound over the 
spacious sea in our hollow barks. 

When the ships held possession of the deep, and no land is 
any longer in view, sky all around, and ocean all around ; then 
an azure rain-cloud stood over my head, bringing on night and 
wintry storm ; the waves grew rough in the gloom ; 18 the winds 

16 Iasius, a son of Jupiter and Electra, and brother to Dardanus ; he 
was one of the Atlantides, and reigned over part of Arcadia. 

17 Coritus, (Cortona,) a town and mountain of Etruria, so called from 
Coritus, a king of Etruria, father to Iasius. 

18 Compare Pacuvius, " Inhorrescit mare, tenebrae conduplicantur, noo- 
tisque et nubium occaecat nigror." B. 



7. xxi. 196—227. -3ENEID. 159 

overturn the sea, and mighty surges rise : we are tossed to and 
fro on the face of the boiling deep : clouds enwrapped the day, 
and humid night snatched the heavens [from our view] ; from 
the bursting clouds flashes of lightning redouble. We are 
driven from our course, and wander in unknown waves. Pa- 
linurus 19 himself owns he is unable to distinguish day and 
night by the sky, and that he has forgotten his course in the 
mid sea. Thus for three days, that could hardly be distin- 
guished by reason of the dark clouds, as many starless nights, 
we wander up and down the ocean. At length, on the fourth 
day, land was first seen to rise, to disclose the mountains from 
afar, and roll up smoke : the sails are lowered, we ply hard 
the oars ; instantly the seamen, with exerted vigour, toss up 
the foam, and sweep the azure deep. 

The shores of the Strophades 20 first receive me rescued from 
the waves. The Strophades, so called by a Greek name, are 
islands situated in the great Ionian Sea ; which direful Celseno 21 
and the other Harpies inhabit, from what time Phineus' palace 
was closed against them, and they were frighted from his table, 
which they formerly haunted. No monster more fell than they, 
no plague and scourge of the gods more cruel, ever issued from 
the Stygian waves. They are fowls with virgin faces, most 
loathsome is their bodily discharge, hands hooked, and looks 
ever pale with famine. Hither conveyed, as soon as we en- 
tered the port, lo ! we observe joyous herds of cattle roving 
up and down the plains, and flocks of goats along the meadows 
without a keeper. We rush upon them with our swords, and 
invoke the gods and Jove himself to share the booty. Then 
along the winding shore we raise the couches, and feast on the 
rich repast. But suddenly, with direful swoop, the Harpies 
are upon us from the mountains, shake their wings with loud 
din, prey upon our banquet, and defile every thing with their 

19 Palinurus, a skilful pilot of the ship of JEneas. He fell overboard 
while asleep, and after being three days exposed to the tempests, he 
reached the shore near Velia, a town of Lucania, when he was murdered 
by the inhabitants. A promontory, on which a monument was raised to 
him, received the name of Palinurus. 

20 Stroplv jl es > (Stamphane,) two small islands in the Ionian Sea, south 
of the island of Zacynthos (Zante). 

21 Celaeno, one of the Harpies : these were fabulous monsters, with 
wings, three in number, daughters of Neptune and Terra. They wers 
sent by Juno to plunder the tables of Phineus, king of Thrace, whence 
they were driven to the Strophades, where JEneas found them. 



160 J5NEID. B . in. 228—257. 

touch : at the same time, together with a rank smell, hideous 
screams arise. Again we spread our tables in a long recess, 
under a shelving rock, enclosed around with trees and gloomy 
shode ; and once more we plant fire on the altar. Again the 
noisy crowd, from a different quarter of the sky, and obscure 
retreats, flutter around the prey with hooked claws, taint our 
viands with their mouths. Then I enjoin my companions to 
take arms, and wage war with the horrid race. They do no 
otherwise than bidden, dispose their swords secretly among 
the grass, and conceal their shields out of sight. 22 Therefore, 
as soon as stooping down they raised their screaming voices 
along the bending shores, Misenus 23 with his hollow trumpet 
of brass gives the signal from a lofty place of observation : my 
friends set upon them, and engage in a new kind of fight, to 
employ the sword in destroying obscene sea-fowls. But they 
neither suffer any violence on their plumes, nor wounds in 
the body ; and, mounting up in the air with rapid flight, leave 
behind them their half-eaten prey, and the ugly prints of 
their feet. Celasno alone alighted on a high rock, the pro- 
phetess of ill, and from her breast burst forth these words : 
War too, ye sons of Laomedon, is it your purpose to make 
war for our oxen which you have slain, for the havoc you 
have made upon our bullocks, and to banish the innocent 
Harpies from their hereditary kingdom ? Lend them an ear, 
and in your minds ^ these my words : what the almighty 
Sire revealed to Phoebus, Phoebus Apollo to me, I the chief 
of the furies disclose to you. To Italy you steer your course, 
and Italy you shall reach after repeated invocations to the 
winds, and you shall be permitted to enter the port : but you 
shall not surround the given city with walls, till dire famine 
and disaster, for shedding our blood, compel you first to gnaw 
around and eat up your tables 24 with your teeth. 

22 Cf. Silius ix. 99, " condit membra occultata." B. 

23 Misenus was a son of jEoIus, and the trumpeter of Hector, after 
whose death he followed iEneas to Italy, and was drowned on the coast 
of Campania, because he had challenged one of the Tritons. 

24 The sense of this prediction is seen from its accomplishment in the 
Seventh Book, verse 116. This is not merely poetical invention, it was an 
historical tradition, related by Dionysius and Strabo, that iEneas had re- 
ceived a response from an oracle, foretelling that, before he came to his 
{settlement in Italy, he should be reduced to the necessity of eating his 
trenchers. Varro says he got it from the oracle of Dodona. Virgil puts 



». in. 258-285. JENEID. 1GI 

She said, and on her wings upborne flew into the wood. 
As for my companions, their blood, chilled with sudden fear 
stagnated ; their minds sunk : and now they are no longer for 
arms, but urge me to solicit peace by vows and prayers, 
whether they be goddesses, or cursed and inauspicious birds. 
My father Anchises, with hands spread forth from the shore, 
invokes the great gods, and enjoins due honours to be paid 
them : Ye gods, ward off these threatenings ; ye gods, avert 
so great a calamity ; and propitious save your pious votaries. 
Then he orders to tear the ropes from the shore, loose and dis- 
engage the cables. The south winds stretch our sails : we 
fly over the foaming waves, where the wind and pilots urged 
our course. Now amidst the waves appear woody Zacynthos, 25 
Dulichium, Same, and Neritos, with its steep rocks. We 
shun the cliffs of Ithaca, 26 Laertes' realms, and curse the land 
that bred the cruel Ulysses. Soon after this the cloudy tops 
of Mount Leucate, 27 and [the temple of] Apollo, the dread of 
seamen, open to our view. Hither we steer our course op- 
pressed with toil, and approach the little city. The anchor 
is thrown out from the prow : the ships are ranged on the 
shore. Thus at length possessed of wished-for land, we both 
perform a lustral sacrifice to Jupiter, and kindle the altars in 
order to perform our vows, and signalize the promontory of 
Actium 28 by celebrating the Trojan games. Our crew, hav- 
ing their naked limbs besmeared with slippery oil, exercise 
the wrestling matches of their country : it delights us to have 
escaped so many Grecian cities and pursued our voyage 
through the midst of our enemies. 

Meanwhile the sun finishes the revolution of the great year, 
and frosty winter exasperates the waves with the north winds. 

this prophecy in the mouth of the harpies, as being both suitable to their 
nature, and more apt to raise surprise when coming from them. 

25 Zacynthos, &c. These are islands in the Ionian Sea, on the western 
coast of Greece. Zacynthos is now called Zante. Dulichium was part 
of the kingdom of Ulysses. Same, now called Cephalonia, the inhabitants; 
of which went with Ulysses to the Trojan war. Neritos, a mountain in 
the island of Ithaca, often applied to the whole island. 

26 Ithaca, an island in the Ionian Sea, where Ulysses reigned. 

27 Leucate, (Cape Ducato,) a high promontory of Leucadia, (St. Maura,) 
an island in the Ionian Sea, where was a famous temple of Apollo. 

28 Actium, (Azio,) a town, and (Cape Figalo) a promontory of Epirus, 
celebrated for the naval victory of Augustus over Antony and Cleopatra, 

.31. 

M 



162 ^NEID. b. in. 286-317. 

Ou the front door-posts [of the temple] I set up a buckler of 
hollow brass, which mighty Abas wore, and notify the action by 
this verse : " These arms JEneas [won] from the victorious 
Greeks." Then I ordered [our crew] to leave the port, and 
take their seats on the benches. They with emulous ardour 
lash the sea, and sweep the waves. In an instant we lose 
sight of 29 the airy towers of the Phaeacians, cruise along the 
coast of Epirus, and enter the Chaonian port, and ascend the 
lofty city of Buthrotus. 30 Here a report of facts scarce cre- 
dible invades our ears, that Helenus, 31 Priam's son, was reign- 
ing over Grecian cities, possessed of the spouse and sceptre of 
Pyrrhus, the grandchild of -ZEacus, and that Andromache had 
again fallen to a lord of her own country. I was amazed, and 
my bosom glowed with strange desire to greet the hero, and 
learn so signal revolutions of fortune. I set forward from the 
port, leaving the fleet and shore. Andromache, as it chanced, 
was then offering to [Hector's] ashes her anniversary 32 feast 
and mournful oblations before the city in a grove, near the 
stream of the fictitious Simois, and invoked the manes at 
Hector's tomb ; an empty tomb which she had consecrated of 
green turf, and two altars, incentives to her grief. As soon 
as she saw me coming up, and to her amazement beheld the 
Troj an arms around me, terrified with a prodigy so great, she 
stiffened at the very sight ; vital warmth forsook her limbs : 
she sinks down, and at length, after a long interval, with fal- 
tering accent speaks : Goddess-born, do you present yourself 
to me a real form, a real messenger ? Do you live ? or, if 
from you the benignant light has fled, where is Hector ? She 
said, and shed a flood of tears, filling all the place with cries. 
To her, in this transport, I with difficulty make even a brief 
reply, and in great perturbation open my mouth in these few 
broken words : I am alive indeed, and spin out life through 
all extremes. Doubt not ; for all you see is real. Ah ! what 
accidents of fife have overtaken you, since you were thrown 

29 So Kpv7TT£tv is elegantly used in Greek. Plat. Protag. 70, <ptvyuv 
etg to irkXayoQ, ditoKOv^avra yrjv. See Herndorfs note. B. 

30 Buthrotus, (Butrinto,) a sea-port town of Epirus, opposite Corfu. 

31 Helenus, a celebrated soothsayer, the only one of Priam's sons who 
survived the ruin of his country; he was king of Chaonia when he received 
^Eneas on his way to Italy. 

32 So Servius. In the same manner Kara irog eKaarov. Thucyd. iii. 
58. B. 



ft. in. 318—349. ^ENEID. 163 

down from [the possession of] your illustrious lord ? or what 
fortune, some way suited to your merit, hath visited you once 
more ? Is then Hector's Andromache bound in wedlock to 
Pyrrhus ? Downward she cast her eyes, and thus in humble 
accents [spoke] : O happy, singularly happy, the fate of Priam's 
virgin-daughter, who, compelled to die at the enemy's tomb 
under the lofty walls of Troy, suffered not in having any lots 
cast for her, nor as a captive ever touched the bed of a victor 
lord ! We, after the burning of our country, being trans- 
ported over various seas, have in thraldom borne with a mo- 
ther's throes the insolence of Achilles' heir, and a haughty, 
imperious youth ; who afterwards, attaching himself to Her- 
mione, 33 the granddaughter of Leda, and a Lacedaemonian 
match, delivered me over a slave into the possession of a slave, 
Helenus. But Orestes, 34 inflamed by the violence of love to 
his betrothed snatched from him, and hurried on by the Furies 
of his crimes, surprises him in an unguarded hour, and assas- 
sinates him at his paternal altar. By the death of Neoptole- 
mus, a part of his kingdom fell to Helenus ; who denominated 
the plains Chaonian, and the whole country Chabnia, from the 
Trojan Chaon, and built on the mountains [another] Perga- 
mus and this Trojan fort. But what winds, what fates, have 
guided your course ? or what god hath landed you on our 
coasts without your knowledge ? What is become of the boy 
Ascanius ? Lives he still, and breathes the vital air ? whom 
to your care, when Troy was Has the boy now any con- 
cern for the loss of his mother ? Is he incited, by both his 
father iEneas and his uncle Hector, to ancient valour and 
manly courage ? 

Thus bathed in tears she spoke, and heaved long unavailing 
sobs ; when the hero Helenus, Priam's son, advances from the 
city with a numerous retinue, knows his friends ? with joy 
conducts them to his palace, and sheds tears in abundance 
between each word. I set forward, and survey the little 

33 Hermione, the (laughter of Menelaus and Helen, was married to 
Pyrrhus, (Neoptolemus,) the son of Achilles ; but having been previously 
promised to Orestes, Pyrrhus was assassinated, when she became the 
wife of Orestes. 

34 Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, and the faithful friend of Pylades. 
Having slain his mother Clytemnestra and her paramour Egisthus, because 
they had murdered his father, Orestes was tormented by the Furies, ai:d 
exiled himself to Argos, the throne of which he afterwards filled. 

m2 



164 JENEID. b. in. 350—377 

Troy, the castle of Pergamus resembling the great original, 
and a scanty rivulet bearing the name of Xanthus ; and I 
embrace the threshold of a Scaean gate. The Trojans too, at 
the same time, enjoy the friendly city. The king entertained 
them in his spacious galleries. In the midst of the court 
they quaffed brimmers of wine, while the banquet was served 
in gold, and each stood with a goblet in his hand. 

And now one day, and a second, passed on, when the gales 
invite our sails, and the canvass bellies by the swelling south 
wind. In these words I accost the prophet, [Helenus,] and 
question him thus : Son of Troy, interpreter of the gods, who 
knowest the divine will of Phoebus, the tripods, the laurels 
of the Clarian 35 god; who knowest the stars, the ominous 
sounds of birds, and the prognostics of the swift wing, 36 come, 
declare (for [hitherto the omens of] religion have pronounced 
my whole voyage to be prosperous, and all the gods, by their 
divine will, have directed me to go in pursuit of Italy, and 
attempt a settlement in lands remote: the Harpy Celaeno 
alone predicts a prodigy strange and horrible to relate, and 
denounces direful vengeance and foul famine) what are the 
principal dangers I am to shun ? or by the pursuit of what 
means may I surmount toils so great ? Upon this Helenus 
first solicits the peace of the gods by sacrificing bullocks in 
due form, then unbinds the fillets of his consecrated head, 
and himself leads me by the hand to thy temple, O Phoebus, 
anxious with great awe of the god ; then the priest, from his 
lips divine, delivers these predictions :| Goddess-born, (for that 
you steer through the deep under some higher auspices, is un- 
questionably evident ; so the sovereign of the gods dispenses 
his decree ; thus he fixes the series of revolving events ; such 
a scheme of things is coming to its accomplishment,) that you 
may with greater safety cross the seas to which you are a 

35 Clarian god, a name of Apollo, from Claros, a city of Ionia, where 
he had a famous temple and oracle. 

K Volucrum linguas, et praspetis omina pennae. Some birds were sub- 
servient to divination by the sounds they uttered, and these were called 
" Oscines ; " of which land were the crows, ravens, &c. Hor. iii. Carm. 
Ode xxvii. 2, 

Oscinem corvum prece suscitabo 
Solis ad ortu. 
Others, again, answered the same end by their manner of flying, Ural 
v.ere called " Praebetes." 



b. in. 378—410 ^ENEID. 1G5 

stranger, and settle in the Ausonian port, I will unfold to you 
a few particulars of many ; for the Destinies 37 prevent you 
from knowing the rest, and Saturnian Juno forbids Helenus 
to reveal it. First of all, a long intricate voyage, with a 
length of lands, divides [you from] Italy, which you unwit- 
tingly deem already near, and whose ports you are preparing 
to enter, as if just at hand. You must both ply the bending 
oar in the Trinacrian wave, and visit with your fleet the 
plains of the Ausonian Sea, the infernal lakes, and the isle of 
^Esean Circe, before you can build a city in a quiet, peaceful 
land. I will declare the signs to you: do you keep them 
treasured up in your mind. When, thoughtfully musing by 
the streams of the secret river, you shall find a large sow that 
has brought forth a litter of thirty young, reclining on the 
ground, under the holms that shade the banks, white [the 
dam], the offspring white around her dugs : that shall be the 
station of the city ; there is the period fixed to thy labours. 
Nor be disturbed at the future event of eating your tables : 
the Fates will find out an expedient, and Apollo invoked will 
befriend you. But shun those coasts, and those nearest limits 
of the Italian shore, which are washed by the tide of our sea : 
all those cities are inhabited by the mischievous Greeks. Here 
the Narycian Locrians have raised their walls, and Cretan 
Idomeneus with his 'troops has possessed the plains of Salen- 
tum : here stands that little city Petilia, defended by the walls 
of Philoctetes 38 the Meliboean chief. [Remember] also (when 
your fleet, having crossed the seas, shall come to a station, 
and you shall pay your vows at the altar raised on the shore) 
to cover your head, muffling yourself in a purple veil, lest 
the face of an enemy, amidst the sacred fires in honour of the 
gods, appear, and disturb the omens. This 'custom, in sacri- 
fice, let your friends, this yourself observe ; to this religious 
institution let your pious descendants adhere. But when, 
after setting out, the wind shall waft you to the Sicilian coast, 

* 7 The Destinies, or Fates, deities who presided over the birth anil 
the life of mankind. They were three in number, Clotho, Lachesis, and 
Atropos, daughters of Nox and Erebus, or, according to others, of Jupiter 
and Themis. 

38 Philoctetes, the son of Poean, king of Meliboea in Thessaly. After 
bis return from the Trojan war, he settled in Italy, where he built the 
town of Petilia (Strongoli) in Calabria. 



i66 ^NEID. b. in. 411— 447. 

and the straits of narrow Pelorus 39 shall open wider to the 
eye, veer to the land on the left, and to the sea on the left, by 
a long circuit ; fly the right both sen and shore. These lands, 
they say, once with violence and vast' desolation convulsed, 
(such revolutions a long course of time is able to produce,) 
slipped asunder ; when in continuity both lands were one, the 
sea rushed impetuously^ between, and by its waves tore the 
Italian side from that of Sicily ; and with a narrow frith runs 
between the fields and cities separated by the shores. Scylla 
guards the right side, implacable Charybdis 40 the left, and thrice 
with the deepest eddies ot its gulf swallows up the vast billows, 
headlong in, and again spouts them out by turns high into the 
air, and lashes the stars with the waves. But Scylla a cave, 
confines within its dark recesses, reaching forth her jaws, and 
sucking in vessels upon the rocks. First she presents a human 
form, a lovely virgin down to the middle ; her lower parts are 
those of a hideous sea-monster, with the tails of dolphins 
joined to the wombs of wolves. It is better with delay to 
coast round the extremities of Sicilian Pachynus, 41 and steer 
a long winding course, than once to behold the misshapen 
Scylla under her capacious den, and those rocks that roar 
with her sea-green dogs. Further, if Helenus has any skill, 
if any credit is due to him as a prophet, if Apollo stores his 
mind with truth, I will give you this one previous admonition, 
this one, goddess-born, above all the rest, and I will inculcate 
it upon you again and again : Be sure you, in the first place, 
with supplications worship great Juno's divinity; to Juno 
cheerfully address your vows, and overcome the powerful queen 
with humble offerings: thus, at length, leaving Trinacria, 
you shall be dismissed victorious to the territories of Italy. 
When, wafted thither, you reach the city Cumae, the hallowed 
lakes, and Avernus resounding through the woods, you will 
see the raving prophetess, who, beneath a deep rock, reveals 
the fates, and commits to the leaves of trees her characters 
and words. Whatever verses the virgin has inscribed on the 
leaves, she ranges in harmonious order, and leaves in the 
cave enclosed by themselves : uncovered they remain in their 

39 Pelorus, (Cape Peloro,) one of the three principal promontories ol 
Sicily, separated from Italy by the straits of Messina. 

40 Charybdis, a dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Sicily, opposite 
Scylla, on the coast of Italy. 

41 Pachynus, (Cape Passaro,) the south-eastern promontory of Sicily. 



it. in. 448— 481. -3ENEID. K>7 

position, nor recede from their order. But when, upon 
turning the hinge, a small breath of wind has blown upon 
them, and the door [by opening] has discomposed the tender 
leaves, she never afterwards cares to catch the verses as they 
are fluttering in the hollow cave, nor to recover their situation, 
or join them together. Men depart without a response, and 
detest the Sibyl's 42 grot. Let not the loss of some time there 
seem of such consequence to you, (though your friends chide, 
and your voyage strongly invite your sails into the deep, and 
you may have an opportunity to fill the bellying canvass with 
a prosperous gale,) as to hinder you from visiting the pro- 
phetess, and earnestly entreating her to deliver the oracles 
herself, and vouchsafe to open her lips in vocal accents. She 
will declare to you the Italian nations, and your future wars, 
and by what means you may shun or sustain each hardship ; 
and, with reverence addressed, will give you a successful voy- 
age. These are all the instructions I am at liberty to give 
you. Go then, and by your achievements raise mighty Troy 
to heaven. Which words when the prophet had thus with 
friendly voice pronounced, he next orders presents to be 
carried to the ships, heavy with gold and ivory ; and within 
the sides of my vessel stows a large quantity of silver plate, 
and caldrons of Dodonean brass, a mail thick set with rings, 
and wrought in gold of triple tissue, together with the cone 
and waving crest of a shining helmet, arms which belonged 
to Neoptolemus : my father too has proper gifts conferred on 
him. He gives us horses besides, and gives us guides. He 
supplies us with rowers, and at the same time furnishes our 
crew with arms. Meanwhile Anchises gave orders to equip 
our fleet with sails, that we might not be late for the favour- 
ing gale. Whom the interpreter of Apollo accosts with much 
respect : AnchiseS, honoured with the illustrious bed of Ve*ius, 
\hou care of the gods, twice snatched from the ruins of Troy, 
lo ! there the coast of Ausonia lies before you ; thither speed 
your way with full sail : and yet you must needs steer your 
course beyond. That part of Ausonia which Apollo opens lies 
remote. Go, says he, happy in the pious duty of your son : why 
do I further insist, and by my discourse retard the rising gales ? 

42 The Sibyls were certain women supposed to be inspired, who flour- 
ished in different parts of the world. According to Varro, the number of 
the Sibyls was ten, of whom the most celebrated was that of Cumae in 
Italy. 



168 .ENEID. b. in. 482—517 

In like manner Andromache, grieved at our final departure, 
brings forth for Ascanius vestments wrought in figures of 
gold, and a Phrygian cloak ; nor falls short of his dignity : 43 
she loads him also with presents of her labours in the loom, 
and thus addresses him, Take these too, my child, which may 
be memorials to you of my handy work, and testify the per- 
manent affection of Andromache, the spouse of Hector : ac- 
cept the last presents of thy friends. O image, which is all 
that I have now left of my Astyanax ! j ust such eyes, such 
hands, such looks he showed ; and now of equal age with you, 
would have been blooming into youth. I, with tears in my 
eyes, thus addressed them at parting : Live in felicity, ye 
whose fortune is now accomplished : we are summoned from 
fate to fate. To you tranquillity is secured ; no expanse of 
sea have you to plough, or to pursue the ever-retreating lands 
of Ausonia. You behold the image of Xanthus, and the Troy 
which your own hands have built: Heaven grant it be with 
happier auspices, and be less obnoxious to the Greeks. If 
ever I shall enter the Tiber, and the lands that border on the 
Tiber, and view the walls allotted to my race, we will here- 
after make of our kindred cities an allied people, [yours] in 
Epirus, [and mine] in Italy, who have> both the same founder, 
Dardanus, and the same fortune ; [we will, I say, make] of 
both one Troy, in good- will. Be this the future care of our 
posterity. 

We pursue our voyage near the adjacent Ceraunian moun- 
tains ; whence lies our way, and the shortest course by sea to 
Italy. Meanwhile the sun goes down, and the dusky moun- 
tains are wrapped up in shade. On the hpsom of the wished- 
for earth we throw ourselves down by the waves, having 
distributed the oars by lot, and all along the dry beach we re- 
fresh our frames [with food] ; sleep diffuses its dews over our 
weary limbs. Night, driven by the hours, had not yet reached 
her mid-way course, when Palinurus springs alert from his 
bed, examines every wind, and lends his ears to catch the 
breeze. He marks every star gliding in the silent sky, Arc- 
turus, the rainy Hyades, and the two northern Bears, and 
throws his eyes round Orion armed with gold. After having 

43 i. e. "her presents are such as his merits deserve." Scaurus, as 
we learn from Servius, read " hc-nore," which certainly seems mor2 
simple. B. 



D. in. 518— 553. JENEID. 169 

seen all appearances of settled weather in the serene sky, he 
gives the loud signal from the stern : we decamp, attempt our 
voyage, and expand the wings of our sails. And now the 
stars being chased away, blushing Aurora appeared, when far 
off we espy the hills obscure, and lowly Italy. Italy ! Achates 
first called aloud ; Italy the crew with joyous acclamations 
hail. Then father Anchises decked a capacious bowl with a 
garland, and filled it up with wine ; and invoked the gods, 
standing on the lofty stern : Ye gods who rule sea, and land, 
and storms, grant us a prosperous voyage by the wind, and 
breathe propitious. The wished-for gales begin to swell ; and 
now the port opens nearer to our view, and on a height ap- 
pears the temple of Minerva. Our crew furl the sails, and 
turn about their prows to the shore. Where the wave breaks 
from the east, the port bends into an arch; the jutting cliffs 
foam with the briny spray ; [the port] itself lies hidden : two 
turret-like rocks stretch out their arms in a double wall, and 
the temple recedes from the shore. Here, on the grassy 
meadow, I saw, as our first omen, four snow-white steeds 
grazing the plain at large. And father Anchises [calls out], 
War, O hospitable land, thou betokenest ; 44 for war steeds are 
harnessed ; war these cattle threaten : but yet, the same qua- 
drupeds having long been used to submit to the chariot, and 
in the yoke to bear the peaceful reins, there is hope, also, of 
peace, he says. Then we address our prayers to the sacred 
majesty of Pallas, with clashing arms arrayed, who first re- 
ceived us elated with joy ; and before her altars we veiled our 
heads with a Phrygian veil ; and according to the instructions 
of Helenus, on which he laid the greatest stress, in due form 
we offer up to Argive Juno the honours enjoined. Without 
delay, as soon as we had regularly fulfilled our vows, we turn 
about the extremities of our sail-yards, and quit the abodes 
and suspected territories of the sons of Greece. Next is seen 
the bay of Tarentum, sacred to Hercules, if report be true ; 
and the Lacinian 45 goddess rears herself opposite : the towers 
of Caulon 46 [also appear], and Scylaceum infamous for ship- 

44 Cf. Mn. iv. 840, " tristia omnia portans." Petron. § 124, " incendia 
portat." See also Westerhov. on Ter. Andr. i. 1, 46. B. 

45 Lacinian goddess ; that is, Juno Lacinia, who had a celebrated tem- 
ple near Crotona, a city of Calabria in Italy. 

46 Caulon and Scylaceum, (Squillace,) "both towns of Calabria, south 
of Crotona. 



170 ^ENEID. n. m. 554— 588 

wrecks*. Then, far from the waves, is seen Trinacrian iEtna ; 
and from a distance we hear the loud growling of the ocean, 
the beaten rocks, and the murmurs of breakers on the coast : 
the deep 47 leaps up, and sands are mingled with the tide. And, 
[says] father Anchises, Doubtless this is the famed Charybdis ; 
these shelves, these hideous rocks Helenus foretold. Rescue 
us, my friends, and with equal ardour rise on your oars. They 
do no otherwise than bidden; and first Palinurus whirled 
about the creaking prow to the left waters. The whole crew, 
with oars and sails, bore to the left. We mount up to heaven 
on the arched gulf, and down again we settle to the shades 
below, the wave having retired. Thrice the rocks bellowed 
amid their hollow caverns ; thrice we saw the foam dashed 
up, and the stars drenched with its dewy moisture. 

Meanwhile the wind with the sun forsook us spent with 
toil ; and not knowing our course, we near the coasts of the 
Cyclops. The port itself is ample, and undisturbed by the 
access of the winds ; but, near it, ^Etna thunders with horri- 
ble ruins, and sometimes sends forth to the skies a black cloud, 
ascending in a pitchy whirlwind of smoke and glowing em- 
bers ; throws up balls of flame, and kisses the stars : some- 
times, belching, hurls forth rocks and the shattered bowels of 
the mountain, and with a rumbling noise wreaths aloft the 
molten rocks, and boils up from its lowest bottom. It is said 
that the body of Enceladus, 48 half consumed with lightning, is 
pressed down by this pile, and that cumbrous JEtna, laid 
above him, spouts forth flames from its burst furnaces ; and 
that, as often as he shifts his weary side, all Trinacria, 49 with 
a groan, inly trembles, and overshades the heavens with smoke. 
Lying that night under the covert of the woods, we suffer 
from those hideous prodigies ; nor see what cause produced 
the sound. For neither was there the light of the stars, nor 
was the sky enlightened by the starry firmament ; but gloom 
was over the dusky sky, and a night of extreme darkness 
muffled up the moon in clouds. 

And now the next day with the first dawn was rising, and 

47 " Vada" must not be rendered " shallows." See Heyne. B. 

48 Enceladus, the son of Titan and Terra, and the most powerful of all 
the giants, who conspired against Jupiter. According to the poets, he was 
struck with Jupiter's thunders, and overwhelmed under Mount ^Etna. 

49 Trinacria, an ancient name of the island of Sicily, from its three 
promontories. 



B. in. 589— G26. JENEID. 171 

Aurora had dissipated the humid shades from the sky ; when 
suddenly a strange figure of a man unknown to us, emaciated 
to the last degree, and in a lamentable plight, stalks from the 
woods, and, with the air of a suppliant, stretches forth his 
hands to the shore. We look back: he was in horrid filth, 
his beard overgrown, 50 his garment tagged with thorns ; but, 
in all besides, he was a Greek, and had formerly been sent to 
Troy accompanying the arms of his country. As soon as he de- 
scried our Trojan dress and arms, struck with terror at the 
sight, he paused a while, and stopped his progress : a moment 
after, rushed headlong to the shore with tears and prayers. I 
conjure you, [says he,] by the stars, by the powers above, by 
this celestial light of life, ye Trojans, snatch me hence; con- 
vey me to any climes whatever, I shall be satisfied. It is true, 
I am one who belonged to the Grecian fleet, and, I confess, I 
bore arms against the walls of Troy : for which, if the demerit 
of my crime be so heinous, scatter my limbs on the waves, 
and bury them in the vast ocean. If I die, I shall have the 
satisfaction of dying by the hands of men. He said, and clasp- 
ing our knees, and wallowing [on the ground], clung to our 
knees. We urge him to tell who he is, of what family born ; 
and next to declare what fortune pursues him. My father 
Anchises frankly gives the youth his right hand, and re-assures 
his mind by that kind pledge. At length, fear removed, he 
thus begins : I am a native of Ithaca ; a companion of the un- 
fortunate Ulysses, Achaemenides my name. I went to Troy, 
my father Adamastus being poor, but would that my state of 
life had remained as it was: Here, in the huge den of the 
Cyciop, my unmindful companions deserted me, while in con- 
sternation they fled from his cruel abodes. It is an abode of 
gore and bloody banquets, gloomy within, and vast ; [the Cy- 
clop] himself, of towering height, beats the stars on high, (ye 
gods, avert such a pest from the earth !) fiercely scowling in 
his aspect, and inaccessible to every mortal : he feeds on the 
entrails and purple blood of hapless wretches. I myself be- 
held, when, having grasped in 1 his rapacious hand two of our 
number, as he lay stretched on his back in the middle of the 
cave, he dashed them against the stones, and the bespattered 
pavement floated with their blood : I beheld, when he ground 

50 Cf. Sisenna apud Non. ii. 471, " Coraplures menses barba immiss#, 
ot iiitonsb capilio." B. 



172 ^ENEID. b. hi. 627-661. 

their members distilling black gore, and their throbbing limbs 
quivered under his teeth. 51 Not with impunity, it is true ; such 
barbarity Ulysses suffered not [to pass unrevenged], nor was 
the prince of Ithaca forgetful of himself in that critical hour. 
For as soon as, glutted with his banquet, and buried in wine, 
he reposed his reclined neck to rest, and lay at his enormous 
length along the cave, disgorging blood in his sleep, and gob- 
bets intermixed with gory wine ; we, having implored the 
great gods, and distributed our several parts by lot, pour in 
upon him on all hands at once, and with our pointed javelins 
bore out the huge single eye which was sunk under his lower- 
ing front, like a Grecian buckler, or the orb of Phoebe ; and 
at length we joyfully avenge the manes of our friends. But 
fly, ah wretches ! fly, and tear the cables from the shore. For 
such and so vast Polyphemus 52 [is, who] pens in his hollow 
cave the fleecy flocks, and drains their dugs, a hundred other 
direful Cyclops commonly haunt these winding shores, and 
roam on the lofty mountains. The horns of the moon are now 
filling up with light for the third time, while in these woods, 
among the desert dens and holds of wild beasts, I linger out 
my life, and descry from the rock the vast Cyclops, and quake 
at the sound of their feet and voice. The berries and the 
stony cornels, which the branches supply, form my wretched 
sustenance, and the herbs feed me with their plucked up roots. 
Casting my eyes around on every object, this fleet I espied 
first steering to the shore ; to it I was resolved to give up my- 
self, whatever it had been ; it suffices me that I have escaped 
from that horrid crew. Do you rather destroy this life by 
any sort of death. Scarcely had he spoken this, when on 
the summit of the mountain we observe the shepherd Poly- 
phemus himself, stalking with his enormous bulk among his 
flocks, and seeking the shore, his usual haunt ; a horrible 
monster, mis-shapen, vast, of sight deprived. The trunk of a 
pine guides his hand, and makes firm his steps: his fleecy 
sheep accompany him ; this his sole delight, and the solace of 
his distresses : \_from his neck his whistle hangs. 53 j After 

51 The reader may compare Horn. Od. I. 288; Eur. Cycl. 379 sqq.; 
Ovid Met. xiv. 205 sqq. B. 

92 Polyphemus, a son of Neptune, and king of the Cyclops. He is re- 
presented as a monster of great strength, with one eye in the middle of 
the forehead, which Ulysses put out as he was asleep. 

6J A spurious attempt to fill up the verse. B. 



i3. in. 662— 694 JhlNEID. 173 

he touched the deep floods, and arrived at the sea, he therewith 
washes away the trickling gore from his quenched orb, gnash- 
ing his teeth with a groan : and now he stalks through the 
midst of the sea, while the waves have not yet wetted his 
gigantic sides. We, in consternation, hasten our flight far 
from that shore, having received our suppliant, who thus 
merited our favour ; we silently cut the cable, and bending 
forward, sweep the sea with struggling oars. He perceived, 
and at the sound turned his steps. But when no opportunity 
is afforded him to reach us with his eager grasp, and he is 
unable in pursuing us to equal the Ionian waves, he raises a 
prodigious yell, wherewith the sea and every wave deeply 
trembled, and Italy, to its inmost bounds, was affrighted, and 
-ZEtna bellowed through its winding caverns. Meanwhile the 
race of the Cyclops, roused from the woods and lofty moun- 
tains, rush to the port, and crowd the shore. We perceive the 
JEtnean brothers, standing side by side in vain, with lowering 
eye, bearing their heads aloft to heaven ; a horrid assembly : 
as when aerial oaks, or cone-bearing cypresses, Jove's lofty 
wood, or Diana's grove, together rear their towering tops. 
Sharp fear impels our crew to tack about to any quarter what- 
ever, and spread their sails to any favourable wind. • On the 
other hand, the commands of Helenus warn them not to con- 
tinue their course between Scylla and Charybdis, a path which 
borders on death on either hand : our resolution [therefore] 
is, to sail backward. 

And lo ! the north- wind sent from the narrow seat of Pe- 
lorus comes to our aid. I am wafted beyond the mouth of 
Pantagia, 54 formed of natural rock, the bay of Megara, and 
low -lying Tapsus. These Achgemenides, the associate of 
accursed Ulysses, pointed out to us, as backward he cruised 
along the scenes of his wanderings. 

Before the Sicilian bay outstretched lies an island opposite 
to rough Plemmyrium ; 55 the ancients called its name Orty- 
gia. 56 It is said, that Alpheus, a river of Elis, hath hither 

54 Pantagia, a small but rapid river on the eastern coast of Sicily, be- 
tween Catana and Syracuse. Tapsus, a peninsula in the bay of Megara, 
north of Syracuse. 

55 Plemmyrium, a promontory in the bay of Syracuse. 

56 Ortygia, a small island within the same bay, in which was the cele 
brated fountain Arethusa. 



174 



JENEID. 



b. in. 695—718. 



worked a secret channel under the sea ; which, by thy mouth, 

Arethusa, is now blended with the Sicilian waves. We 
venerate the great divinities of the place, as commanded ; and 
thence I pass the too luxuriant soil of the overflowing Helo- 
rus. 57 Hence we skim along the high cliffs and prominent 
rocks of Pachynus ; and at a distance appears Camarina, by 
fate forbidden to be ever removed ; the Geloian plains and 
huge Gela, called by the name of the river. Next lofty Acra- 
gas 58 shows from far its stately walls, once the breeder of 
generous steeds. And thee, Selinus, fruitful in palms, I leave, 
by means of the given winds ; and I trace my way through 
the shallows of Lilybeum, 69 dangerous through its hidden 
rocks. Hence the port and joyless coast of Drepanum receive 
me. Here, alas ! after being tossed by so many storms at sea, 

1 lose my sire Anchises, my solace in every care and suffer- 
ing. Here thou, best of fathers, whom in vain, alas ! I saved 
from so great dangers, forsakest me spent with toils. Neither 
prophetic Helenus, when he gave me many fearful warnings, 
nor dire Celasno, predicted to me this mournful stroke. This 
was my finishing disaster, this the termination of my long 
tedious voyage. Parting hence, a god directed me to your 
coasts. 

Thus father iEneas, while all sat attentive, alone recounted 
the destiny allotted to him by the gods, and gave a history of 
his voyage. He ceased at length, and, having here finished 
his relation, rested. 



57 Helorus, (Abisso,) a river of Sicily, south of Syracuse, which over- 
flowed its banks at certain seasons. Camarina, a lake, and Gela, a city 
on the southern coast of Sicily. 

58 Acragas, called also Agrigentum, (Girgenti,) a celebrated city of 
Sicily, built on a mountain of the same name. Selinus, a city in the 
south-west of Sicily, the vicinity of which "abounded with palm-trees. 

59 Lilybeum, (Cape Boee,) one of the three famous promontories oj 
Sicily. Drepanum, (Trapani,) a town on the western coast of Sicily 
near Mount Erix, where Anchises died. 



x tv. 1—28. ^NETD. ITS 



BOOK IV. 

In the Fourth Book, Queen Dido becomes deeply enamoured of JEneas, to 
whom she proffers her hand and her crown ; but, on finding him deter- 
mined, in obedience to the command of the gods, to leave Carthage, rage 
and despair took possession of the unhappy queen. At last, the sudden 
departure of iEneas led to the fatal catastrophe of her death, by her own 
hand, on the funeral pile which she had erected. 

But the queen, long since pierced with painful care, feeds the 
wound in her veins, and is consumed by unseen flames. 1 The 
many virtues of the hero, the many honours of his race, recur 
to her thoughts : his looks and words dwell fixed in her soul : 
nor does care allow calm rest to her limbs. Returning Aurora 
now illuminated the earth with the lamp of Phoebus, and had 
chased away the dewy shades from the sky, when she, half- 
frenzied, thus addresses her sympathizing sister : Sister Anna, 
what dreams terrify and distract my mind ! What think you 
of 2 this wondrous guest who has come to our abodes ? In mien 
how graceful he appears ! in manly fortitude and warlike deeds 
how great ! I am fully persuaded (nor is my belief ground- 
less) that he is the oifspring of the gods. Fear argues a de- 
generate mind. Ah ! by what fatal disasters has he been 
tossed ! what toils of war he sang, endured to the last ! 3 Had 
I not been fixed and stedfast in my resolution, never to join 
myself to any in the bonds of wedlock, since my first love by 
death mocked and disappointed me ; had I not been thoroughly 
tired of the marriage-bed and nuptial torch, to this one frailty 
I might perhaps give way. Anna, (for I will own it,) since 
the decease of my unhappy spouse Sichasus, and since the house- 
hold gods were stained with his blood shed by a brother, this 
[stranger] alone has warped my inclinations, and interested 
my wavering mind : I recognise the symptoms of my former 
flame. But sooner may earth from her lowest depths yawn 
for me, or the almighty Sire hurl me by his thunder to the 
shades, the pale shades of Erebus and deep night, than I vio- 
late thee, modesty, or break thy laws. He who first linked 

1 Cf. Aristenet. Ep. ii. 5, kKfioaKtrai yap fik rig dvepjjirjvevroQ odvvrj. B. 

2 Davidson has better expressed the force of this Greek construction 
than Anthon. Cf. Soph. Ant. 7; El. 328; Msch. Ch. 8. B. 

* Literally, " drained to the dregs." Cf. ^En. x. 57. B. 



176 ^NEID. b. iv. 28—60 

me to himself hath borne away my affection ; may he possess 
it still, and retain it in his grave. This said, she filled her 
bosom with trickling tears. \ Anna replies : O dearer to your 
sister than the light, will you thus in mournful solitude waste 
your bloom of youth, nor know the dear delights of children, 
and rewards of love ? Think you that ashes and the buried 
dead care for that ? 4 What though no lovers moved you before, 
when your sorrows were green, either in Libya, or before in 
Tyre ? what though Iarbas 5 was slighted, and other princes 
whom Afric, fertile in triumphs, maintains ? Will you also re- 
sist a flame which you approve ? Will you not reflect in whose 
country you now reside ? Here the Getulian 6 cities, a race 
invincible in war, unrestrained Numidians, and inhospitable 
quicksands, enclose you round ; there, a region by thirst 
turned into a desert, and the wide-raging Barcaeans. Why 
should I mention the kindling wars from Tyre, and the me- 
naces of your brother ? It was surely, I think, under the 
auspices of the gods, and by the favour of Juno, that the Tro- 
jan ships steered their course to this our coast. O sister, how 
flourishing shall you see this city, how potent your kingdom 
rise from such a match ! By what high exploits shall the Car- 
thaginian glory be advanced, when the Trojan's arms join 
them ! Do thou but supplicate the favour of the gods, and, 
having performed propitiating rites, indulge in hospitality, 
and devise one pretence after another for detaining [your 
guest], while winter's fury rages on the sea, and Orion charged 
with rain ; while his ships are shattered, and the sky is in- 
clement. 

By this speech she fanned the fire of love kindled in Dido's 
breast, buoyed up her wavering mind with hope, and banished 
her scruples. First to the temples they repair, and by sacri- 
fice the peace of heaven implore : to Ceres the lawgiver, to 
Phoebus, and to father Bacchus, they offer ewes of the age of 
two years, according to custom ; above all to Juno, whose 
province is the nuptial tie. Dido herself, in all her beauty, 

4 Petron. § iii. " Id cineres, aut manes credis sepultos sentire ?" B. 

5 Iarbas, a son of Jupiter and Garamantis, and king of Getulia, from 
whom Dido bought land to build Carthage. He was a lover of the queen 
at the time iEneas came to Carthage. 

6 Getulians, Numidians, &c, the inhabitants of countries in Northern 
Africa, now Algiers, Barbary, &c. 



B . iv. 61— 100. J3NE1D. 177 

holding in her right hand the cup, pours it between the horns 
cf a white heifer ; or before the images of the gods in solemn 
pomp around the rich-loaded altars walks, renews one offering 
after another all the day long, and, gaping over the disclosed 
breasts of the victims, consults their panting entrails. Alas ! 
how ignorant the minds of seers ! what can prayers, what can 
temples, avail a raging lover ? The gentle Hame preys all the 
while upon her vitals, and the secret wound rankles in her 
breast. Unhappy Dido burns, and frantic roves over all the 
town ; like a wounded deer, whom, off her guard, a shepherd 
pursuing with his darts has pierced at a distance among the 
Cretan woods, and unknowingly [in the wound] hath left the 
winged steel : she flying bounds over the Dictaean woods and 
glades : the fatal shaft sticks in her side. Now she conducts 
JEneas through the midst of her fortifications ; shows him both 
the treasures brought from Tyre, and her new city : she be- 
gins to speak, and stops short in the middle of a word. When 
day declines, she longs to have the same banquets renewed ; 
and, fond even to madness, begs again to hear the Trojan 
disasters, and again hangs on the speaker's lips. Now, when 
they had severally retired, while the fading moon in her alter- 
nate course withdraws her light, and the setting stars invite 
sleep, she mourns alone in the desert hall, presses the couch 
which he had left, and in fancy hears and sees the absent 
hero ; or, captivated with the father's image, hugs Ascanius 
in her bosom, if possibly she may divert her unutterable love. 
The towers which were begun cease to rise ; her youth prac- 
tise not their warlike exercises, nor prepare ports and bulwarks 
for war ; the works and the huge battlements on the walls, 
and the engines that mate the skies, are discontinued. 

Whom when Jove's beloved wife perceived to be thus pos- 
sessed with the blighting passion, and that even sense of 
honour could not resist its rage, Saturnia thus artfully ad* 
dresses Venus : Distinguished praise, no doubt, and ample 
spoils, you and your boy carry off, high and signal renown, if 
one woman is overcome by the wiles of two deities. Nor am 
I quite ignorant, that you apprehend danger from our walls, 
and view the structures of lofty Carthage with a jealous eye. 
But where will all this end ? or what do we now propose by 
such hot contention ? Why do not we rather promote an eternal 
peace, and nuptial contract ? You have your whole soul's do- 

N 



178 ^NEID. b. iv. 101—129 

sire ; Dido burns with love, and has sucked the fury into her 
very bones. Let us therefore rule this people in common, 
and under equal sway : let Dido be at liberty to bind herself 
in wedlock to a Trojan lord, and into thy hand deliver over 
the Tyrians by way of dowry. 

To whom Yenus (for she perceived that she spoke with an 
insincere mind, with a design to transfer the seat of empire 
from Italy to the Libyan coasts) thus in her turn began : 
Who can be so mad as to reject these terms, and rather choose 
to engage in war with you, would fortune but concur with the 
scheme which you mention ? But I am driven to an uncer- 
tainty by the Fates, [not knowing] whether it be the will of 
Jupiter that the Tyrians and Trojans should dwell in one city, 
or if he will approve the union of the two nations, and the 
joining of alliance. You are his consort: to you it belongs 
by entreaty to work upon his mind. Lead you the way ; I 
will follow. Then imperial Juno thus replied : That task 
be mine : meanwhile (mark my words) I will briefly show by 
what means our present design may be accomplished. iEneas 
and most unhappy Dido are preparing to hunt together in the 
forest, soon as to-morrow's sun shall have brought forth the 
early dawn, and enlightened the world with his beams. While 
the [bright-hued] plumage flutters, 7 and they enclose the 
thickets with toils, I will pour on them from above a blacken- 
ing storm of rain with mingled hail, and with peals of thunder 
make heaven's whole frame to shake. Their retinue shall fly 
different ways, and be covered with a dark night [of clouds]. 
Dido and the Trojan prince shall repair to the same cave : 
there will I be present, and, if I have your firm consent, I will 
join them in the lasting bonds of wedlock, and consecrate her 
to be his for ever. The god of marriage 8 shall be there. Yenus, 
without any opposition, agreed to her proposal, and smiled at 
the fraud she discovered. 

Meanwhile Aurora rising left the ocean. Soon as the beams 

7 This is the proper meaning of "alae." Cf. Ovid. Met. i. 106. In 
minting, nets were drawn around a considerable space, within which the 
beasts were driven. In order to scare them thither, a number of bright- 
coloured feathers were hung to strings at a little distance, called the 
" formido." It was chiefly employed in hunting deer. Cf. Ulit. on 
Gratius Cyneg. 77 and 85. B. 

8 Hymen, the god of marriage, was the son of Bacchus and Venus, or, 
according to others, of Apollo and one of the Muses. 



3. tv. 130—157. ^ENEID. 17^ 

of day shot forth, the chosen youth issue through the gates : 
the fine nets, the toils, the broad-pointed hunting spears, the 
Massylian 9 horsemen, and a pack of quick-scented hounds, 
pour forth together. Before the palace-gate the Carthaginian 
nobles await the queen lingering in her alcove : her steed, 
richly caparisoned with purple and gold, ready stands, and 
fiercely champs the foaming bit. At length she comes at- 
tended by a numerous retinue, attired in a Sidonian chlamys 
with embroidered border : she has a quiver of gold ; her 
tresses are tied in a golden knot ; a golden buckle binds up her 
purple robe. The Trojan youth, too, and sprightly lulus, 
accompany the procession. JEneas himself, distinguished in 
beauty above all the rest, mingles with the retinue, and adds 
his train to hers : as when Apollo, leaving Lycia, 10 his winter 
seat, and the streams of Xanthus, revisits his mother's island 
Delos, and renews the dances : the Cretans, Dryopes, 11 and 
painted Agathyrsi, 12 mingle their acclamations around his 
altars : he himself moves majestic oh Cynthus' top, and ad- 
justing his waving hair, crowns it with a soft wreath, and en- 
folds it in gold ; his arrows rattle on his shoulders. With no 
less active grace iEneas moved : such comeliness shines forth 
in his matchless mien. { Soon as they reached the high moun- 
tains, and pathless lairs, lo ! from the summit of the craggy 
cliff the wild goats dislodged skip down the rocks : on the 
other side the stags scour along the open plains, and gather 
together in flight their dust- covered squadrons, and forsake 
the mountains. Now the boy Ascanius delights in his 
sprightly courser through the enclosed vales ; and now these, 

9 The Massylians, a warlike people of Mauritania in Africa, near Mount 
Atlas : when they went on horseback, they never used saddles or bridles, 
but only sticks. 

10 As Dido is before compared to Diana, iEn. i. 498, so ^Eneas here to 
Apollo, the brother of Diana. It was a common opinion, that the gods at 
certain times of the year changed their places of residence ; and Servius 
says it was firmly believed, that Apollo gave responses at Patara, a city of 
Lycia, during the six months of winter, and at Delos in the summer 
months. Hence Apollo is called Delius and Patareus, Hor. Carm. iii. 

4, 62. 

qui Lycise tenet 

Dumeta, natalemque silvam, 
Delius et Patareus Apollo. 

11 Dryopes, a people of Greece, in the vicinity of Mount CEta and 
Parnassus. 

12 Agathyrsi, an effeminate nation of Scythia. 

N 2 ^ 



180 ^NEID. a. iv. 158— 190 

now those he outrides, and devoutly wishes that a foaming 
boar would cross his way amidst the feeble flocks, or a tawny 
lion descend from the mountain. 

Meanwhile the air begins to be disturbed with loud murmur- 
ings ; a deluge of rain with mingled hail succeeds. And here 
and there the Tyrian train, the Trojan youth, and Venus' 
grandchild of Dardanian line, for fear sought different shelters 
through the fields. Whole rivers from the mountains come 
pouring down. Dido and the Trojan prince repair to the 
same cave. [Then] first the Earth, and Juno who presides 
over marriage, gave the signal: lightnings flashed, the sky 
was a witness to the alliance, and the nymphs were heard to 
shriek on the mountain tops. That day first proved the 
source of death, the source of woes : for [now] Dido is neither 
influenced by appearance nor character, nor is she now studi- 
ous to carry on clandestine love : she calls it marriage : she 
veils 13 her guilt under that name. 

Forthwith Fame 14 through the populous city of Libya runs : 
Fame, than whom no pest is more swift, by exerting her 
agility grows more active, and acquires strength on her way : 
small at first through fear ; soon she shoots up into the skies, 
and stalks along the ground, while she hides her head among the 
clouds. Parent Earth, enraged by the vengeance of the gods, 
produced her the youngest sister, it is said of Coeus, and 
Enceladus, swift to move with feet and persevering wings : a 
monster hideous, immense ; who (wondrous to relate !) for as 
many plumes as are in her body, numbers so many wakeful 
eyes beneath, so many tongues, so many babbling mouths, 
pricks up so many listening ears. By night, through the mid 
region of the sky, and through the shades of earth, she flies 
buzzing, nor inclines her eyes to balmy rest. Watchful by 
day, she perches either on some high house-top, or on lofty 
turrets, and fills mighty cities with dismay; as obstinately 
bent on falsehood and iniquity as on reporting truth. She 
then, delighted, with various rumours filled the people's ear, 
and uttered facts and fictions indifferently; [namely,] that 

13 More literally, " she weaves over her fault with this title." D'Orville 
on Chariton, p. 82, compares Ovid Her. v. 131, "vim licet appelles, et 
culpam nomine veles." Aristoph. Plut. 159, ovofxari TrepiTrkrovcri ttjv 
fioxQrjpicLv. 

14 Fame was worshipped by the ancients as a powerful goddess, and 
generally represented blowing a trumpet, &c. 



D. iv. 191— 216. ^ENEID. 181 

iEneas, sprung from Trojan blood, had arrived, whom Dido, 
with all her charms, vouchsafed to wed ; that now in revelling 
with each other they enjoyed the winter, throughout its length, 
unmindful of their kingdoms, and enslaved by a base passion. 
With such news the foul goddess fills the mouths of the 
people. To king Iarbus straight she turns her course ; in- 
flames his soul by her rumours, and aggravates his rage. This 
Iarbus, the son of Ammon by the ravished nymph Gara- 
mantis, raised to Jove a hundred lofty temples within hi? 
extensive realms, a hundred altars ; and there had he conse- 
crated the wakeful fire, with a sacred watch to keep eternal 
guard, a piece of ground, fattened with victims' blood, and 
the gates adorned with wreaths of various flowers. He, 
maddened in soul, and inflamed by the bitter tidings, is said, 
before the altars, amid the very presence of the gods, to have 
[thus] importunately addressed Jupiter in suppliant form 
with uplifted hands : Almighty Jove, to whom the Maurusian 
race, that feast on painted couches, now honour thee with a 
libation of wine, seest thou these things ? or do we vainly 
dread thee, when thou, O father ! dartest thy thunder-bolts ? 
and are those lightnings in the clouds that terrify our minds 
blind and fortuitous, and do they mingle mere idle sounds ? 
A wandering woman, who hath built in our dominions a small 
city [on a spot] she purchased ; to whom we assigned a tract 
of shore for tillage, and upon whom we imposed the laws of 
the country, hath rejected our proffered match, and hath taken 
^Eneas into her kingdom for her lord : and now this other 
Paris, 15 with his unmanly 16 train, bound under the chin with 
a Lydian cap, 17 and with his locks bedewed [with odours], 

15 He calls yEneas Paris, both to denote him effeminate, and a ravisher, 

i one who had carried off from him that princess whom he looked upon as 
I his property, and thought he had a right to marry. In allusion to which 
i rape, he says at the end of the sentence, rapto potitur. 

16 Is said in allusion to the manner of the Phrygians, who were great 
' worshippers of the goddess Cybele, whose priests were eunuchs. 

17 Mseonian or Lydian mitre, a sort of bonnet wore by the Lydian and 
Phrygian women, a part of dress which would have been quite infamous 
in a man, especially when it had the redimicula or fillets, wherewith it 
was tied under the chin, mentum subnexus : 

Vobis picta croco et fulgenti murice vestis ; 

Desidiae cordi ; juvat indulgere choreis ; 

Et tunicae manicas et habent redimicula nitrae : 

O vere Phrvgise, neque enim Phryges I ^En. ix. 14. 



182 ^NEID. b. iv. 217—247. 

enjoys the ravished prize: [this we have deserved forsooth,] 
because we bring offerings to thy temples, and cherish an 
idle glory. 18 

While in such terms he addressed his prayer, and grasped 
the altar, the almighty heard, and turned his eyes towards 
the royal towers [of Carthage], and the lovers regardless of 
their better fame. Then thus he bespeaks Mercury, and gives 
him these instructions : Fly quick, my son, call the zephyrs, 
and on thy pinions glide: and to the Trojan prince, who now 
loiters in Tyrian Carthage, nor regards the cities allotted him 
by the Fates, address yourself; and bear [this] my message 
swiftly through the skies. Not such a one did his fairest 
mother promise us, nor was it for this she saved him twice 
from the Grecian sword: but that he should be one who 
should rule Italy, big with [future] empire, and fierce in war, 
who should evince his descent from Teucer's noble blood, and 
bring the whole world under his sway. If he is not fired 
by the glory of such deeds, nor will himself attempt any 
laborious enterprise for his own renown, will he, the father, 
envy Ascanius Rome's imperial towers ? What does he pro- 
pose ? or with what prospect lingers he so long among an 
unfriendly race, nor regards his Ausonian offspring, and 
Lavinian fields ? Bid him set sail. No more : be this our 
message. 

He said : Mercury prepared to obey his mighty father's 
will : and first to his feet he binds his golden sandals, which 
by their wings waft him aloft, whether over sea or land, swift 
as the rapid gales. Next he takes his wand ; with this he 
calls from hell the pale ghosts, despatches others down to sad 
Tartarus, gives sleep, or takes it away, and unseals the eyes 
from death. 19 Aided by this, he drives along the winds, and 
breasts the troubled clouds. And now in his flight he espies 
the top and lofty sides of hardy Atlas, 20 who with his summit 

ls i. e. of being thy descendants. B. 

19 This explanation is neatly supported in Anthon's note. B. 

20 Atlas, one of the Titans, son of Japetus and Clymene. He was king 
of Mauritania, and upon Perseus showing him the head of Medusa, was 
changed into the mountain which bears his name. Mount Atlas runs 
across the deserts of Africa, east and west, and is so high that the ancients 
imagined that the heavens rested on its top, and that Atlas supported the 
world on his shoulders. 






B. iv. 248-282. ^NEID. 183 

supports the sky ; Atlas, whose head, crowned with pines, is 
always encircled with black clouds, and lashed by wind and 
rain : large sheets of snow enwrap his shoulders ; from his 
aged chin torrents headlong roll, and his grisly beard is stiff 
with icicles. Here first Cyllenius, 21 poising himself on even 
wings, alighted ; hence with the weight of his whole body he 
flings himself headlong to the floods ; like the fowl, which 
[hovering] about the shores, about the fishy rocks, flies low 
near the surface of the seas : just so Maia's son, shooting 
down from his maternal grandsire between heaven and earth, 
[skimmed along] the sandy shore of Libya, and cut the 
Hs^inds. 22 ! As soon as he touched the cottages [of Afric] with 
his winged feet, he views JEneas founding towers, and rais- 
ing new structures ; and at his side he wore a sword studded 
with yellow jasper, and a cloak, hanging down from his 
shoulders, glowed with Tyrian purple ; presents which wealthy 
Dido had given, and had interwoven the stuff with threads of 
gold. Forthwith he accosts him : Is it for you now to be lay- 
ing the foundations of stately Carthage, and, the fond slave of 
a wife, be raising a city [for her], regardless, alas ! of your 
kingdom and nearest concerns? The sovereign of the gods, 
who governs heaven and earth by his nod, himself sends me 
down to you from bright Olympus. The same commanded 
me to bear these his instructions swiftly through the air. What 
dost thou propose, or with what prospect dost thou waste thy 
peaceful hours in the territories of Libya ? If no glory from 
such deeds moves thee, and thou wilt attempt no laborious en- 
terprise for thy own renown ; have some regard [at least] to 
the rising Ascanius, and the hopes of thine heir lulus, for 
whom the kingdom of Italy and the Roman territories are 
destined. When Cyllenius had spoken thus, he left mortal 
vision in the very midst of the conference, and far beyond 
sight vanished into thin air. 

Meanwhile ^Eneas, entranced by the vision, was struck 
dumb ; his hair with horror stood erect, and his tongue 
cleaved to his jaws. He burns to be gone in flight, and leave 
the darling land, awed by the message and dread command of 

21 Cyllenius, a name of Mercury, from Cyllene, a mountain of Arcadia, 
where he was Lorn. 

22 This whole passage is probably spurious. See Anthon. The zeugma 
ia the last line is intolerable. B. 



184 ^NEID. *. iv. 283—313 

the gods. Ah ! what can he do ? in what terms can he now 
presume to solicit the consent of the 23 raving queen ? With 
what words shall he introduce the subject ? And now this 
way, now that, he swiftly turns his wavering mind, snatches 
various purposes by starts, and roams uncertain through all. 
Thus fluctuating, he fixed on this resolution as the best : he 
calls to him Mnestheus, 24 Sergestus, and the brave Cloanthus ; 
[and bids them] with silent care equip the fleet, summon their 
social bands to the shore, prepare their arms, and artfully con- 
ceal the cause of this sudden change : [adding,] that he him- 
self, in the mean time, while generous Dido was in ignorance, 
and had no apprehension that their so great loves could be 
dissolved, would try the avenues [to her heart], what may be 
the softest moments of address, what means might be most 
favourable to their design. With joyful speed they all obey 
the commands, and put his orders in execution. 

But the queen (who can deceive a lover ?) was beforehand 
in perceiving the fraud, and the first who conjectured their 
future motions, dreading even where all seemed to be safe : 
the same malignant fame conveyed the news to her frantic, 
that the fleet was being equipped, and preparing to set sail. 
She rages even to madness, and inflamed, she wildly roams 
through all the city : like a Bacchanal wrought up into en- 
thusiastic fury in celebrating the sacred [mysteries of her 
god], when the triennial orgies stimulate her, at hearing the 
name of Bacchus, and the nocturnal howlings on Mount 
Citheron invite her. At length, in these words she first ac- 
costs -ZEneas : And didst thou hope, too, perfidious one, to be 
able to conceal from me so wicked a purpose, and to steal 
away in silence from my coasts ? Can neither our love, nor 
thy once plighted faith, nor Dido resolved to die by a cruel 
death, detain thee ? Nay, you prepare your fleet even in the 
wintry season, and haste to launch into the deep amidst 
northern blasts ! Cruel one ! suppose you were not bound 
for a foreign land and settlements unknown, and old Troy 
was still remaining ; should you set sail for Troy on this tem- 

23 Literally, " to get around." Anthon. 

24 Mnestheus, a Trojan, descended from Assaraeus : he obtained a prize 
hi the funeral games of Anchises, and was the progenitor of the Memmii 
at Rome. Sergestus, a sailor in the fleet of iEneas, from whom the family 
of the Sergii at Rome were descended. Cloanthus, one of the companion!? 
of iEueas, the ancestor of the Cluentii family at Rome. 



b. iv. 31-V-346. ^ENEID. 185 

pestuous sea? Wilt thou fly from me? By these 25 tears, by 
that right hand, (since I have left nothing else to myself now, 
a wretch forlorn,) by our nuptial rites, by our conjugal loves 
begun ; if I have deserved any thanks at thy hand, or if ever 
you saw any charms in me, take pity, I implore thee, on a 
falling race, and, if yet there is any room for prayers, lav 
aside your resolution. For thy sake have I incurred the 
hatred of the Libyan nations, of the Numidian princes, and 
made the Tyrians my enemies ; for thy sake have I sacrificed 
my shame, and, what alone raised me to the stars, my former 
fame : to whom dost thou abandon Dido, soon about to die, 
my guest ! since, instead of a husband's name, only this re- 
mains? 26 What wait I for? is it till my brother Pygmalion 
lay this city of mine in ashes, or Iarbas, the Getulian, carry 
me away his captive? Had I but enjoyed offspring by thee 
before thy flight ; did a young ^Eneas play in my hall, were 
it but to give me thy image in his features, I should not indeed 
have thought myself quite a captive and forlorn. 

She said. He, by the commands of Jove, held his eyes- 
unmoved, and with hard struggles suppressed the anxious 
care in his heart. At length he briefly replies, That you, O 
queen, have laid on me numerous obligations, which you may 
recount at large, I never shall disown ; and I shall always re- 
member Elisa with pleasure, while I have any remembrance 
of myself, while I have a soul to actuate these limbs. But to 
the point in debate I shall briefly speak : believe me, I neither 
thought by stealth to have concealed this my flight, nor did I 
^ever pretend a lawful union, or enter into such a contract^ 
±Iad the Fates left me free to conduct my life by my own di- 
rection, and ease my cares according to my own choice ; my 
first regards had been shown to Troy and the dear relics of 
my country ; Priam's lofty palace should [now] remain, and 
with this hand I would have repaired for the conquered the 
walls of Pergamus, raised again from ruin. But now to great 
Italy Grynasan Apollo, to Italy the Lycian oracles have com- 

25 For this collocation of words, compare Eur. Andr. 892, irpbg as r&v 
Ik yovvdrwv. Hipp. 601, Tvpbg <rk rf)Q arjg ds%iag. j&n. x. 369. Ter. 
Andr. iii. 3, 6. Tibull. i. 5, 7. B. 

26 Valpy well remarks, that, as iEneas disowns the nnptial tie, Dido 
addresses him by the title of guest, which he cannot reject. Seneca has 
expressed the same idea, Here. Fur. 1, '■' Soror Tonantis, hoc eniui 
solum mini nomen relictum est." B. 



i^6 ^ENEID. b. iv. 347—377 

manded me to repair. This is the object of my love, this my 
country. If the towers of Carthage and the sight of a 
Libyan city engross you, a Phoenician born, why should you 
be dissatisfied that we Trojans settle in the land of Ausonia? 
Let us too have the privilege to go in quest of foreign realms. 
Whenever the night overspreads the earth with humid shades, 
as often as the fiery stars arise, the troubled ghost of my 
father Anchises visits me in my dreams, and with dreadful 
summons urges [my departure] : my son Ascanius [calls] me 
[hence], and the injury done to one so dear, whom I defraud 
of the Hesperian crown, and his destined dominions. Now 27 
also the messenger of the gods, despatched from Jove himself, 
(I call them both to witness !) swift gliding through the air, 
bore to me his high commands : myself beheld the god in con- 
spicuous brightness entering your walls, and with these ears 
I received his voice. Cease to torment yourself and me by 
your complaints : the Italian coasts I pursue, not out of 
choice. 28 

Thus while he speaks, she views him all along from the 
beginning with averted looks, rolling her eyes hither and 
thither, and with silent glances surveys his whole person, then 
thus inflamed with wrath breaks forth : Nor -goddess gave 
thee birth, perfidious one ! nor is Dardanus the founder of 
thy race, but frightful Caucasus on flinty cliffs brought thee 
forth, and Hyrcanian tigers gave thee suck. For why should 
I dissemble ? or for what greater injuries can I be reserved ? 
Did he so much* as sigh at my distress ? did he once move his 
eyes ? Did he, overcome, shed a tear, or compassionate me in 
my love ? Where shall I begin my complaint ? Now neither 
mighty Juno nor the Saturnian sire, considers these things 
with impartial eyes. Firm faith no where subsists. An 
outcast on my shores, an indigent wretch, I received him, and 
fool that I was, settled him in partnership of my crown ; his 
wrecked fleet [I renewed], his companions from death I saved. 
Ah ! I am all on fire, I am distracted with fury ! " Now 29 the 
prophetic voice of Apollo ; now the Lycian lots ; and now the 

27 This sophistical defence of ^Eneas has been partly copied by Silius, 
viii. 109 sqq. B. 

28 On this abruptly finished passage, see Weichart, de vers, npmr < p. 
71. B. 

29 Dido ironically repeats his words. 






E iv. 378—410. ^NEID. 167 

messenger of the gods, despatched from Jove himself, through 
the air conveys the horrid mandate." A worthy employ- 
ment, forsooth, for the powers above, a weighty concern to 
disturb them in their peaceful state ! I neither detain you, 
nor argue against what you have said. Go, speed your way 
for Italy with the winds, pursue this kingdom of yours, over 
the waves. I hope, however, (if the just gods have any power,) 
thou mayest suffer punishment amid the rocks, and often 
[vainly] call on Dido's name. I, though absent, will pursue 
thee with black flames : and, when cold death shall have 
separated these limbs from my soul, as a shade will I haunt 30 
thee in every place : Wretch ! thou shalt make atonement : I 
shall hear it ; even in the deep shades these tidings will reach 
me. With these words she breaks off in the middle of the 
conference, and sickening shuns the light: she turns about, 
and flings away out of his sight, leaving him greatly per- 
plexed through fear, and preparing to say a thousand things. 
Her maids raise her up, bear her fainting limbs into her 
marble bed-chamber, and gently lay her on a couch. 

Meanwhile pious JEueas, though by solacing means he 
desires to ease her grief, and by words to divert her anguish, 
heaving many a sigh, and staggered in his mind by mighty 
love, yet gives obedience to the commands of the gods, and 
revisits his fleet. Then, indeed, the Trojans intensely ply 
their work, and launch the ships all along the shore. The 
pitchy keel floats ; through eager haste to sail, they bring from 
the woods oars not cleared of leaves, and unfashioned timber. 
You might have seen them removing, and pouring from all 
quarters of the town, as when ants, mindful of winter, plunder 
a large granary of corn, and hoard it up in their cell ; the 
black battalion marches over the plains, and along the narrow 
track they convey their booty through the meadows ; some, 
shoving with their shoulders, push forward the cumbrous 
grain ; some rally the [straggling] bands, and chastise those 
that lag : the path all glows with the work. 

Dido, how wast thou then affected with so sad a prospect ? 
What groans didst thou uttex, when from thy lofty tower thou 
beheldest the shore in its wide extent glowing [with bustle], 

30 Ovid, Ibis, 146. " Turn quoque factorum veniam memor umbra 
tuorum, Insequar et vultus ossea forma tuos. Quae vis Deorum est 
manium." B. 



188 -EXEID. b. IV. 411— 442. 

and didst also observe, full in thy view, the whole watery 
plain resounding with such mingled shouts ? Unrelenting 
love, how irresistible is thy sway over the mind of mortals ! 
She is constrained once more to have recourse to tears, once 
more to assail him by prayers, and suppliant to subject the 
powers of her soul to love, lest, by leaving any means unat- 
tempted, she should throw away her life rashly, and without 
cause. Anna, thou seest over all the shore how they are 
hastening : the whole bands are drawn together, the canvass 
now invites the gales ; and the joyful mariners have crowned 
their stems with garlands. sister, since I was able to fore- 
see this so sad a blow, I shall be able to bear it. Yet, Anna, 
perform this one request for your wretched sister : for that 
perfidious man made you the sole object of his esteem, even 
intrusted you with the secrets of his soul, you alone knew the 
occasions and soft approaches to his heart. Go, sister, and in 
suppliant terms bespeak the haughty foe : I never conspired 
with the Greeks at Aulis 31 to extirpate the Trojan race, or 
sent a fleet to Troy ; nor did I disturb the ashes and manes 
of his father Anchises. Why does he stop his unrelenting 
ears to my words ? whither does he fly ? Let him grant but 
this last favour to his unhappy lover ; to defer his flight till it 
be safe, and till the winds blow fair. 32 I plead no more for 
that old- promised wedlock, which he has betrayed; nor that 
he should deprive himself of fair Latium, and relinquish a 
kingdom. I ask a trifling moment ; a respite and interval 
from distracting pain, till, subdued by fortune, I learn to sus- 
tain my woes. This favour I implore as the last, (pity thy 
sister!) which, when he has granted, I shall send him away 
completely happy in my death. 

To this effect she prayed ; and her sister, deeply distressed, 
bears once and a^ain this mournful message to ^EEneas ; but bv 
none of her mournful messages is he moved, nor listens with 
calm regard to anv words. The Fates stand in his wav ; and 
heaven renders his ears deaf to compassion. And as the 
Alpine north winds by their blasts, now on this side, now on 

31 Aulis. a sea-port town of Boetia, in Greece, where the Grecian forces 
a--embled in the expedition against Troy. 

s - Vent^sque ferentes, i. e. Yentosque secundos. as in SeDeca de B. V 
c 21, Navigantem secundns et ferens ventus exhilarat. So Pliny hi his 
panegyric, Yenti ferentes et brevis cursus ootentur. 






„ 1V . 443—473. JSNEID. 189 

that, strive with joint force to overturn a sturdy ancient oak ; 
a loud howling goes forth, and the leaves strew the ground in 
heaps, while the trunk is shaken ; the tree itself cleaves fast to 
the rocks ; and as high as it shoots up to the top in the ethereal 
regions, so deep it descends with its root towards Tartarus : 
just so the hero on this side and that side is plied with impor- 
tunate remonstrances, and feels deep pangs in his mighty soul ; 
his mind remains unmoved ; unavailing tears are shed. 

Then, indeed, unhappy Dido, struck to the heart by her 
fate, longs for death ; she sickens of beholding the canopy of 
heaven. The more to prompt her to execute her purpose, 
and to part with the light, while she was presenting her 
offerings upon the altar that smoked with incense, she beheld, 
horrid to relate ! the sacred liquors grow black, and the out- 
poured wine turn into inauspicious blood. This vision she 
revealed to none, not even to her sister. Besides, there was in 
the palace a marble shrine in honour of her former husband, 
to which she paid extraordinary veneration, [having] it encir- 
cled with snowy fillets of wool and festal garlands. Hence 
voices,, and the words of her husband calling her, seemed to 
be heard, 33 when dim night shrouded the earth ; and on the 
house-tops the solitary owl often complained in doleful ditty, 
and spun out his long notes in a mournful strain. Besides, 
many predictions of pious prophets terrify her with dreadful 
forebodings. JSneas himself, now stern and cruel, disturbs 
her raving in her sleep ; and still she seems to be abandoned 
in solitude, still to be going a long tedious journey, with no 
attendance, and to be in quest of her Tyrians in some desert 
country: as frantic Pentheus 34 sees troops of Furies, two 
suns, and Thebes appear double ; or like Orestes, Agamem- 
non's son, with distraction hurried on the stage, when he flies 
from his mother armed with firebrands 35 and black snakes 
and the avenged Furies are planted at the gate. 36 

33 Compare Silius, viii. 122 sqq., and Ovid, Her. vii. 100 sqq. Such 
prodigies are great favourites with the Greek romancists. Thus in 
Heliodor. ii. 70, eK pvx&y rov arrrjXaiov, (piovrjg rig rjxog sZtjkovsto, 
9edyeyeg, KaXovarjg. And Chariton, i. p. 12, \po<pog ovk early, dXXd (pwvri 
KaXovyrcoy fie r&v vTroxQovicjy irpbg avrovg. B. 

34 Pentheus, son of Echion and Agave, was king of Thebes in Bceotia. 
In consequence of his refusal to acknowledge the divinity of Bacchus, he 
was torn to pieces by the bacchanals. 

35 There is an evident reference to the stage costume of the Furies. B 
w According to Servius, Virgil follows a tragedy of Pacuvius, in whicli 



190 JENEID. b. iv. 474—501 









When, therefore, overpowered with grief, she had taken 
the Furies 37 into her breast, and determined to die, she pon 
ders the time and manner with herself; and thus accosting 
her sister, the partner of her grief, covers her intention in her 
looks, and puts on a serene air of hope. Rejoice, O sister, 
with thy sister ! I have found an expedient, which will restore 
him to me, or set my love-sick soul at liberty from him. 
Near the extremity of the ocean and the setting sun, the utmost 
boundary of ./Ethiopia lies, where mighty Atlas on his shoul- 
der whirls about the globe, spangled with refulgent stars 
hence appeared to me a priestess of the Massylian nation, the 
guardian of the temple of the Hesperides, 38 who supplied the 
dragon with food, and watched the sacred branches on the 
tree, infusing liquid honey and the sleepy poppy. She un 
dertakes, by charms, to release any souls, whom she will, 
[from the power of love,] and to entail on others irksome 
cares : to stop the course of rivers, and turn the stars back- 
ward : she summons up the ghosts by night. You shall see 
the earth bellow under her feet, and the wild ashes descend 
from the mountains. My dear sister, I call the gods, and you, 
and that dear person of thine, to witness, that it is against my 
will I set about these magic arts. Do you in secrecy erect a 
funeral pile in the inner court, under the open air, and lay 
upon it his arms, which he, impiously base, left fixed in my 
bed-chamber, with all his clothes, and the nuptial bed in 
which I was undone. The priestess orders and directs me to 
destroy every monument of that execrable man. Having thus 
said, she ceases : at the same time, paleness overcasts her 
whole complexion. Yet Anna imagines not that her sister 
aimed at death under pretext of these unusual rites ; nor 
once suspects that she had formed such a desperate purpose, 



Orestes was represented taking refuge in the temple of Apollo, while the 
Furies kept watch for him at the gate. For the more usual stage arrange- 
ment, see my notes on -^Esch. Eum. p. 180, note 4, ed. Bohn. B. 

37 The Furies, daughters of Acheron and Nox : they were three in 
number, Tisiphone, Megara, and Alecto, and we-e supposed to be the 
ministers of the vengeance of the gods. 

38 Hesperides, three celebrated nymphs, daughters of Hesperus: they 
presided over the garden which contained the golden apples that Juno gave 
to Jupiter on the day of their nuptials. This garden, according to the an- 
cients, was situated near Mount Atlas, in Africa, and the tree bearing the 
golden apples was guarded by a huge dragon. 






a. iv. 502—535. ^ENEID. 19! 

nor dreads any thing worse than had happened at the death of 
Sichaeus. Therefore she makes the desired preparations. 

But the queen, as soon as the vast pile was erected under 
the open air in the inner court, with torches and faggots 
of oak, encircles the ground with garlands, and crowns it with 
funeral boughs : upon the bed she lays his clothes, the sword 
he left, and his image, well knowing of the future. Altars 
are raised around; and the priestess, her hair dishevelled, 
with thundering voice, invokes three hundred gods, and Ere- 
bus, and Chaos, and threefold Hecate, 39 virgin Diana's triple 
form. She sprinkled also water counterfeiting that of the 
lake Avernus: 40 full-grown herbs, cut by moonlight with 
brazen sickles, are searched out, together with the juice of 
black poison : the [mother's] love, 41 too, torn from the fore- 
head of a new-foaled colt, and snatched away from the dam, 
is sought out. The queen herself, now resolute on death, 
having one foot bare, her robe-ungirt, standing by the altars, 
with the salt cake and pious hands, makes her appeal to the 
gods, and to the stars conscious of her fate : then, if any deity, 
both just and mindful, regards lovers unequally yoked, him 
she invokes. 

It was night, and weary bodies over the earth were enjoy- 
ing a peaceful repose : the woods and raging seas were still ; 
when the stars roll in the middle of their gliding course; 
when every field is hushed : the beasts, and speckled birds, 
both those that far and wide haunt the liquid lakes, and those 
that possess the fields with rough bushes overgrown, all 
stretched under the silent night, allayed their cares with sleep, 
and every heart forgot its toil. But not so the soul-distressed 
queen ; not one moment is she lulled to rest, nor enjoys the 
night with eyes or mind. Her cares redouble ; and love, again 
arising, rages afresh, and fluctuates with a high tide of pas- 
sions. Thus then she persists, and revolves these secret re- 
flections in her breast : Lo ! what shall I do ? Baffled as I am, 
shall I, in my turn, apply to my former suitors? shall I 
humbly sue for a match with one of the Numidians, whom I 

39 Hecate, the daughter of Perses and Asteria, or rather of Jupiter and 
Latona : she was called Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate, or 
Proserpine, in hell. 

40 « Avernales aquas." Hor. Ep. v. 15. Cf. Macrob. iii. 1. B 

41 On the " hippomanes," here meant, see Anthon. B. 



192 iENEID. b. iv. 536-573, 

have so often disdained as lords ? Shall I then attend the fleet 
of Ilium, and submit to the basest commands of the Trojans? 
and that, because I am well rewarded for having lent them my 
assistance, and in their grateful hearts a just sense of my 
former kindness remains ? But, suppose I had the will, who 
will put it in my power, or receive into their proud ships me, 
the object of their hate ? Ah ! lost one, art thou unacquainted 
with, art thou still to learn, the perfidiousness of Laomedon's 
race ? What then ? Shall I steal away by myself to accom- 
pany the triumphant crew ? or, attended by my Tyrians, and 
all my people in a body, shall I pursue them, and again lead 
out to sea, and order those to spread their sails to the winds, 
whom, with much ado, I forced from Tyre ? Nay, rather die, 
as you deserve, and end your woes with the sword. You, 
sister, subdued by my tears, you first oppressed my distracted 
mind with these woes, and exposed me to the enemy. Might 
I not have led an innocent unwedded life, like a savage of the 
field, and have avoided such cares ? I have violated the faith 
I plighted to the manes of Sichasus. 

Such heavy complaints she poured forth from her heart. 
JEneas, determined to depart, was enjoying sleep in the lofty 
stern, all things being now in readiness. The form of the god, 
returning with the same aspect, appeared to him in his sleep, 
and thus again seemed to admonish him ; in every thing re- 
sembling Mercury, in voice, complexion, golden locks, and 
comely youthful limbs : " G-oddess-born, can you indulge in 
sleep at this conjuncture ? Infatuated, not to see what dangers 
in a moment may beset you, nor listen to the breathing of the 
friendly zephyrs ! She, bent on death, is revolving guileful 
purposes and horrid wickedness in her breast, and fluctuates 
with a tide of angry passions. Will you not fly hence with 
precipitation, while thus to fly is in your power ? Forthwith 
you shall behold the sea in commotion with her oars, and 
torches fiercely blaze ; forthwith the shore lighted up with 
flames, if the morning reach you lingering on these coasts. 
Come then, quick, break off delay: woman is a fickle and 
ever changeable creature." This said, he mingled with the 
3able night. 

Then, indeed, JEneas, in consternation at this sudden ap- 
parition, snatches his frame from the couch, and rouses his 
companions : Awake, my mates, in haste, and plant your- 



b. iv. 574— 609. ^ENEID. , 193 

selves on the benches ; instantly unfurl the sails. A god, 
despatched from the high heavens, once more prompts me to 
hasten my departure, and cut the twisted cables. We follow 
thee, O holy power, whoever thou art, and once more with 
joy obey thy commands. Ah ! be present, lend us thy pro- 
pitious aid, and light up friendly stars in the heavens. He 
said, and snatches his keen flashing sword from the sheath, 
and cuts the halsers with the drawn steel. The same eager- 
ness at once seizes them all: they hale, they hurry away: 
they have quitted the shore ; the sea lies hidden under the 
fleet ; they with exerted vigour upturn the foaming billows, 
and sweep the azure deep. 

And now Aurora, leaving Tithonus' saffron bed, first sowed 
the earth with new-born light : soon as the queen from her 
watch-towers marked the dawn whitening, and the fleet set- 
ting forward with balanced sails, and perceived the shore and 
vacant port without a rower ; thrice and four times smiting 
her fair bosom, and tearing her golden locks : Jupiter ! 
shall he go ? she says : and shall this stranger mock my king- 
dom ? Will they not make ready arms, and pursue from all 
the city ? and will not others tear my ships from the docks ? 
Run quick, fetch flames, unfurl the sails, ply the oars. What 
am I saying ? or where am I ? what madness turns my brain ? 
Unhappy Dido ! art thou then at length stung with the sense 
of his foul impious deeds ? 42 Then it had become thee so to 
act, when thou impartedst [to him] thy. sceptre. Is this the 
honour, the faith ! this [the man] who, they say, carries with 
him his country's gods ! who bore on his shoulders his father 
spent with age ! Might I not have torn in pieces his mangled 
body, and strewn it on the waves? might I not with the 
sword have destroyed his friends, Ascanius himself, and served 
him up for a banquet at his father's table ? But the fortune 
of the fight was doubtful. Grant it had been so : thus reso- 
lute on death, whom had I to fear ? I might have hurled fire- 
brands into his camp, filled the hatches with flames, extirpated 
the son, the sire, with the whole race, and flung myself r ipon 
the pile. Thou -Sun, who with thy flaming beams surveyest 
all works on earth, and thou, Juno, the author 43 and witness 
of these my cares ; Hecate, with howlings invoked through 

42 " facta," not " fata." B. 

** " interpres," i. e. " media et conciliatrix." Servius. B. 



194 JENEID. b. iv. CIO— 632. 

the cities in the crossways by night ; and ye avenging Furies, 
and gods of dying Elisa ! receive these my words ; in justice 
to my wrongs, turn to me your divine regard, and hearken to 
my prayers. If it must be, and Jove's decrees so require, if 
this be his determination,- that the execrable traitor reach the 
port, and get safe to land : yet harassed, at least, by war, and 
the hostilities of an audacious people, expelled from his own 
territories, torn from the embraces of lUlus, may he sue to 
others for relief, and see the ignominious deaths of his friends ; 
and, after he shall have submitted to the terms of a disadvan- 
tageous peace, let him neither enjoy his crown, nor the wished- 
for light, but die before his time, and [he] unburied in the 
midst of the sandy shore. These are my prayers ; 44 these the 
last words I pour forth with my blood. You, too, Tyrians, 
with irreconcilable enmity, pursue his offspring and all his 
future race, and present these offerings to my shade : let no 
amity or leagues between the two nations s subsist. Arise some 
avenger 45 from my ashes, who may persecute those Trojan 
fugitives with fire and sword, now, hereafter, at whatever time 
power shall be given. Let them take this curse from me, 46 
that their shores, their waves, their arms, and ours, may still 
be opposed to one another ; and may their posterity too [and 
ours] be still in war engaged. 

She said, and every way turned her shifting soul, seeking, 
as soon as possible, to bereave herself of the hated light. 
Then briefly thus she bespoke Barce, the nurse of Sichseus 

44 Respecting their mythical fulfilment, see Servhis, and the satisfac- 
tory notes of Anthon. B. 

45 Such as Hannibal proved. B. 

46 It was an opinion very prevailing among the ancients, that the pray- 
ers of the dying were generally heard, and that their last words were pro- 
phetic. Thus Virgil makes Dido imprecate upon ^Sneas a series of 
misfortunes, which actually had their accomplishment in his own person, 
or in his posterity. 1. He was harassed with war in Italy by Turnus 
2. He was necessitated to abandon his son, and go into Etruria to beg for 
assistance, iEn. viii. 80. 3. He saw his friends cruelly slain in battle, 
especially Pallas, JEn. x. 489. 4. He died before his time, being slain 
by Mezentius, according to the most authentic tradition, and was left un- 
buried on the banks of the Numicus, by whose waters his body was at 
length carried off, and never more appeared. 5. The Romans and Car- 
thaginians were irreconcilable enemies to one another, and no leagues, 
no ties of religion, could ever bind the two nations to peace. 6. Hannibal 
was Dido's avenger, who arose afterwards to be the scourge of the 
Romans, and carried fire and sword into Italy. 



b. iv. 633— 666. ^ENEID. 195 

(for the dark grave lodged her own in her native country) : 
Dear nurse, call hither to me my sister Anna ; bid her make 
haste to sprinkle her body with running water, and bring 
with her the victims and the things for expiation of which 
I told her : thus let her come ; and you yourself cover your 
temples with a holy fillet. I have a mind to finish the sacri- 
fice begun with proper rites, which I have prepared for Jupiter 
Stygius, 47 to put a period to my miseries, and to commit to the 
flames the pile of the Trojan. She said : the other quickened 
her pace with an old woman's officiousness. 48 

But Dido, trembling with agitation,' and maddened on ac- 
count of her horrid purpose, rolling her blood-red eye-balls, 
her throbbing cheeks suffused with spots, and all pale with 
approaching death, burst into the gate of the inner palace, 
and frantic mounts the lofty pile, and unsheaths the Trojan 
sword ; a present not provided for such purposes as these. 49 
Here, after she had viewed the Trojan vestments and the con- 
scious bed, having wept and mused awhile, she threw herself 
on the bed, and spoke her last words : Ye dear remains, while 
god and the fates permitted, receive this soul, and free me 
from these cares. I have lived, and finished the race which 
fortune gave me. And now my ghost shall descend illustrious 
to the shades below : I have raised a glorious city, have seen 
the walls of my own building, have avenged my husband, 
punished an unnatural brother ; happy, ah ! too happy, had 
but the Trojan ships never touched my shores ! She said, 
and pressing her lips to the bed, Shall I die unrevenged ? 
But let me die, 50 she says : thus, thus with pleasure I descend 
to the shades below. Let the cruel Trojan from the sea feed 
his eyes with these flames, and bear with him the omens of 
my death. She said; and while she spoke, her attendants 
perceive her fallen on the sword, and the weapon stained with 
foaming gore, and her hands besmeared. The outcry reaches 
the lofty palace ; fame wildly flies through the alarmed city ; 

47 i. e. Pluto. Cf. Macrob. Sat. iii. 3. Msch. Suppl. 164, Zrjva rwv 

K&KfUfJKOTiOV. B. 

48 With Anthon, I prefer " anili " to " anilem." B. 

** i. e. " qusesitum in pignus amoris," as Silius, viii. 50, says, with au 
evident reference to this passage. Cf. Ovid Her. vii. 195. B. 
w Happily imitated by Propert. ii. 7, 79 : 

" Sic igitur prima moriere setate, Properti ? 
Bed morere, interitu gaudeat ilia tuo." B. ,_- 

o 2 



196 ^NEID. b. it. 667— 694. 

the houses ring with lamentations, groans, and female yells, 51 
and the sky resounds with loud shrieks: just as if all Car- 
thage, or ancient Tyre, in the hands of the invading enemy, 
were falling to the ground, and the furious flames were rolling 
over the tops of houses and temples. 

Her sister was breathless at the news, and with trembling 
haste, all aghast, tearing her face with her nails, and [beating] 
her bosom with her hands, rushes through the midst of the 
crowd, and calls her dying [sister] by name: O sister, was 
this your meaning ? did you practise thus to deceive me ? was 
this what I had to expect from that pile, those fires and altars ? 
Abandoned ! where shall I begin to complain ? Did you dis- 
dain a sister for your companion in death ? Had you invited 
me to the same fate, one distress and one hour had snatched 
us both away by the sword. Did I raise [that pile] with 
these very hands, and with my voice invoke our country's 
gods, that I should cruelly absent myself from you, thus 
stretched upon it. Ah sister ! you have involved yourself 
and me, your people, your Tyrian nobles, and your city, in 
one common ruin. Let me bathe her wounds with water, 52 
and catch with my lips, if there be yet any straggling remains 
of breath. 53 This said, she mounted the high steps, and in 
her bosom embracing, cherished her expiring sister with 
sighs, and dried up the black blood with her robe. She 
essaying to lift her heavy eyes, again sinks down. The wound 
deep fixed in her breast, emits a bubbling noise. Thrice 
leaning on her elbow, she made an effort to raise herself up ; 
thrice she fell back on the bed, and with swimming eyes 
sought the light of heaven, and having found it, heaved a 
groan. 

Then all-powerful Juno, in pity to her lingering pain and 
uneasy death, sent down Iris 54 from heaven, to release the 

5i Synes. Ep. p. 164, C. avdputv oi/xwy?), yvvcwcujv 6\o\vyrj. B. 

52 I read " date, [i. e. " aquam,"] vulnera." See Anthon, who renders, 
" give me it, I will wash." B. 

M This was the ancient custom. Cf. Bion, i. 47, a%joic aV6 ^XVQ *Q 
efxBv orSfia ktic Efxov r\izap wvevfjia rebv psvay. B. 

5i Iris, daughter of Thaumus and Electra, was one of the Oceanides, 
and messenger of the gods, more particularly of Juno. Her office was 
to cut the thread which seemed to detain the soul in the body of those 
that were expiring. She is represented with all the variegated and beau- 
tiful colours of the rainbow 



D. iv. 695—705. v. 1—19. -ENEID. 197 

struggling soul and the tie that bound it to the body: for, 
since she neither fell by fate, nor by a deserved death, but 
unhappily before her time, and maddened with sudden rage, 
Proserpina had not yet cropped the yellow hair from the 
crown of her head, and condemned her to Stygian Pluto. 
Therefore dewy Iris, drawing a thousand various colours from 
the opposite sun, shoots downward through the sky on saffron 
wings, and alighted on her head : I, by command, bear away 
this lock sacred to Pluto, and disengage you from that body. 
She said, and cut the lock with her right hand : at once all the 
vital heat was extinguished, and life vanished into air. 

BOOK V. 

In the Fifth Book, JEneas sails from Carthage for Italy, but is forced by a 
storm to revisit Dreparmm in Sicily, where he celebrates the anniversary of 
his father's death by various games and feats at arms. Here the Trojan 
women set fire to the fleet, which is saved by the interposition of Jupiter, 
with the loss of four ships. After this event, iEneas pursues his voyage 
to Italy. 

Meanwhile, JEneas, in direct course, was now fairly on 
his route with the fleet, 1 and was cutting the black billows be- 
fore the wind, looking back to the walls which now glare 
with the flames of unfortunate Elisa. What cause may have 
kindled such a blaze is unknown ; but the thought of those 
cruel agonies that arise from violent love when injured, and 
the knowledge of what frantic woman can do, led the minds 
of the Trojans through dismal forebodings. 

As soon as their ships held the main, and no more land 
appears, sky all around, and ocean all around ; a dark lead- 
coloured watery cloud stood over his head, bringing on night, 
and storm ; and the waves became horrid in the gloom. The 
pilot Palinurus himself from the lofty stern [exclaims] : Ah ! 
why have such threatening clouds begirt the sky ? or what, O 
father Neptune, hast thou in view ? Thus having spoken, he 
next commands to furl the sails, and ply the sturdy oars ; the 
bellying canvass he turns askance to the wind, and thus 
speaks : Magnanimous JEneas, should Jupiter on his authority 
assure me, I could not hope to reach Italy in this weather. 
The winds changed roar across our path, and arise thick from 

1 See Anthon, whom I have closely followed. B . 



198 ^NEID. B. v. 20-51, 

the darkening west, and the air is condensed into cloud. We 
are neither able to make head against [the storm], nor even 
to withstand it : since fortune overpowers us, let us follow 
her, and turn our course where she invites us: the trusty 
shores of your brother Eryx, and the Sicilian ports, I deem 
not far off, if I but rightly remembering review the stars I 
observed before. Then the pious ^Eneas [said], I indeed 
have observed long ago that the winds urge us to this, and 
that your contrary efforts are in vain. Shift your course by 
the sails. Can any land be more welcome to me, or where I 
would sooner choose to put in my weather-beaten ships, than 
that which preserves for me Trojan Acestes, and in its womb 
contains the bones of my father Anchises ? This said, they 
make towards the port, and the prosperous zephyrs stretch the 
sails : the fleet swiftly rides on the flood ; and at length the 
joyous crew are wafted to the well-known strand. But 
Acestes, from a mountain's lofty summit, struck with the dis- 
tant prospect of their arrival, and at the friendly ships, comes 
up to them, all rough with javelins, 2 and the hide of an 
African bear : whom, begotten by the river Crinisius, 3 a Tro- 
jan mother bore. He, not unmindful of his origin, congratu- 
lates them on their safe arrival, and cheerfully entertains them 
with rude magnificence, and refreshes them fatigued with 
friendly cheer. 

When with the early dawn the ensuing bright day had 
chased away the stars, ^Eneas summons to council his follow- 
ers from all the shore, and from the summit of a rising ground 
addresses them: Illustrious Trojans, whose descent is from 
the exalted blood of the gods, the annual circle is completed, 
by the fulfilment of months, since we lodged in the earth the 
relics and bones of my godlike sire, and consecrated to him 
the altars of mourning. And now the day, if I mistake not, 
is at hand, which I shall always account a day of sorrow, al- 
ways a day to be honoured: such, ye gods, has been your 
pleasure . Were I to pass this day in exile among the Syrtes 

2 It is strange that Heyne should have found any difficulty in this 
phrase. The preposition is merely redundant. Cf. Val. Flacc. i. 641, 
" subitus in hasta." Lucan, i. 423, "leves in armis." See Wagner, and 
Weichart on Val. Flacc. viii. 136. 

3 Crinisius, a river on the western side of the island of Sicily, neax the 
city Segesta. 



p. v. 52—85. -ENEID. 199 

of Getulia, or overtaken [by it] on the Grecian Sea, or in the 
city of Mycene, yet would I regularly perform my annual vows, 
and the solemn funeral processions, and heap the altars with 
their proper offerings. Now, without premeditated design, 
though not, I judge, without the will or the influence of the 
gods, we are come to the ashes and bones of my own father, 
and are wafted to the friendly port which we are now entering. 
Come then, and let us all celebrate the joyous rites. Let us 
pray for [prosperous] winds, and that, when our city is built, 
he will permit me to offer to him these rites annually in tem- 
ples consecrated to his honour. Acestes, a son of Troy, gives 
you two oxen for each ship : invite to the feast your household 
and country gods, and those whom our host Acestes worships. 
Further, if the ninth morning shall bring forth the day fair 
and serene to mortals, and brighten up the world with its 
beams, I will propose to the Trojans the first trial of skill to 
be with the swiftest of their ships. And whoever excels in 
running, in strength who boldly dares, or moves superior in 
the javelin, 4 and the light arrows, or who has courage to en- 
counter with the bloody cestus ; let all such be ready at hand, 
and expect prizes of victory suitable to their merit. Do ye all 
keep religious guard over your lips, and encircle your temples 
with boughs. 

This said, he crowns his temples with his mother's myrtle. 
The same does Elymus ; 5 the same Acestes ripened in years ; 
the same the boy Ascanius, whose example the other youths 
follow. He went from the assembly to the tomb with many 
thousands, in the centre of a numerous retinue attending. 
Here in due form, by way of libation, he pours on the ground 
to Bacchus two bowls of wine, two of new milk, two of sacred 
blood ; then scatters blooming flowers, and thus speaks : Hail, 
holy sire ! once more hail, ye ashes revisited in vain ! ye ghosts 
and shades of my father ! Heaven would not allow us to go 
together in quest of the bounds of Italy, and of the lands allotted 
to me by fate, or the Ausonian Tiber, whatever river that is. 
He said ; when from the bottom of the shrine a huge slippery 
snake trailed along, seven circling spires, seven folds, gently 

4 Wyttenbach on Julian, p. 161, condemns this as corrupt. I do not 
6ee any substantial grounds of objection. B. 

5 Elymus, a youth at the court of Acestes, who engaged in the foot- 
races at the tomb of Anchises. 



200 



-3ENEID 



B. V. 



twining round the tomb, and gliding over the altars ; whose 
back azure streaks, and whose scales drops of burnished gold 
brightened up ; as the bow in the clouds draws a thousand 
various colours from the opposite sun. JEneas stood amazed 
at the sight. At length the reptile, creeping with his long 
train between the bowls and smooth-polished goblets, gently- 
tasted the banquet, and harmless retired again into the bottom 
of the tomb, and left the altars on which he had fed. ^Eneas 
with the more zeal pursues the sacrifice begun in honour of his 
father, in doubt whether to think it the genius of the place, or 
the attendant of-his parent. He sacrificed five ewes, two years 
old, according to custom ; as many sows, as many bullocks 
with sable backs : and he poured out wine from the goblets, 
and invoked the soul of great Anchises, and his ghost from 
Acheron released. In like manner his companions offer gifts 
with joy, each according to his ability; they load the altars, 
and sacrifice bullocks. Others place the brazen caldrons in 
order, and, stretched along the grass, apply burning coals 
under the spits, and roast the flesh. 6 

Now the wished-for day approached, and the steeds of the 
sun ushering in the ninth morning with serene sky ; fame, 
and the renown of illustrious Acestes, had drawn together the 
neighbourhood. They filled the shores with joyous crowd, 
some to see the Trojans, some too prepared to try their skill. 
The prizes first are set before their eyes in the midst of the 
circus ; sacred tripods, green garlands, and palms, the reward 
of the conquerors ; arms, and vestments of purple dye, two 
talents, one of gold and one silver: and the trumpet from 
the midst of the rising ground gives the signal that the games 
are begun. 

Four ships selected from the whole fleet, equally matched 
with ponderous oars, first enter the lists. Mnestheus manages 
the swift-sailing Pristis, with stout rowers, [destined] soon 
[to be] the Italian Mnestheus, from which name the family 
of Memmius is derived ; Gyas, 7 the huge Chimera of stupend- 
ous bulk, a work like a city, which with a triple tier the Tro- 
jan youth impel ; the oars rise together in a triple row. Ser- 

6 " Viscera," i. e. all that is contained in the skin of the animal. See 
Anthon, on JEn. i. 211. So " visceratio " is " a distribution of meat." B. 

7 Gyas, one of the companions of iEneas, who distinguished himself at 
the naval games exhibited by JEneas in honour of his father Anchises. 
Gyas commanded the ship Chimera, of which Menoetes was the pilot. 









b. v 121-154. ^NEID. 201 

gestus, from whom the Sergian family has its name, rides iw 
the bulky Centaur ; and Cloanthus in the sea-green Scylla, 
from whom, O Roman Cluentius, is thy descent. Far in the 
sea there lies a rock opposite to the foaming shore, which 
sometimes overwhelmed is buffeted by the swelling surges, 8 
when the wintry north-west winds overcloud the stars : in a 
calm it lies hushed, and rises above the still wave as a plain, 
and a delightful station for the cormorants basking in the sun. 
Here father -ZEneas erected a verdant goal of branching oak 
for a signal to the mariners ; whence they might know to turn 
back, and whence to wind about the long circuits. Then they 
choose their places by lot ; and on the poops the leaders, 
adorned with gold and purple, shine from afar with distin- 
guished lustre. The rest of the youth are crowned with pop- 
lar wreaths, and glitter, having their naked shoulders be- 
smeared with oil. They sit down side by side on the benches, 
and their arms are stretched to the oars : with eager attention 
they wait the signal, and their throbbing hearts beat heavily 
with the impulse of fear, and the generous thirst of praise. 
Then, as soon as the loud trumpet gave the signal, all (there 
is no delay) started from their barrier : the seamen's clamour 
strikes the skies ; and the seas, upturned by their in-bent 
arms, foam. At once they plough the watery furrows ; and 
the whole deep opens, convulsed with oars and trident beaks. 
Not with such violent speed the coursers in the two-yoked 
ehariot-race spring to the field, and start with full career from 
the goal ; nor with such ardour do the charioteers shake the 
waving 9 reins over the flying steeds, and, bending forward, 
hang to [give] the lash. 10 Then, with the applause and up- 
roar of the seamen, and the eager acclamations of the favour- 
ing crowd, every grove resounds : the bounded shores roll the 
voices on; the lashed hills re-echo the sound. Amidst the 
bustle and uproar, Gyas flies out before the rest, and scuds 
away the foremost on the waves : whom next Cloanthus fol- 
lows, a more skilful rower, but the vessel, sluggish through its 
bulk, retards him. After these, at equal distance, the Pristis 

8 The reading quoted "by Agraetius de Serm. Lat. p. 1346, " tumidis 
quod nuctibus olim Tunditur," is far more harmonious than the usual ar- 
rangement. B. 

9 Cf. Tryphiod. 67, BTriKv^iaivovaa jierrjopog avykvi Kvprif. B. 

10 For this construction, cf. Sil. viii. 283, " U'epida pendens in verbers 
plania." B, 



202 ^ENEID. b. v. 155—190. 

and Centaur strive to gain the foremost place. And now the 
Pristis has the advantage, now the huge Centaur gets before 
her vanquished [antagonist] ; anon both advance together 
with united fronts, and with their long keels plough the briny 
waves. And now they were approaching the rock, and had 
reached the goal, when Gyas the foremost, and [hitherto] vic- 
torious, thus in mid-sea accosts Menoetes, the pilot of his ship : 
Whither, I pray, are you going so far to the right ? this way 
steer your course ; keep to the shore, and let the oar graze 
upon the rocks to the left : let others stand out to sea. He 
said : but Menoetes, dreading the hidden rocks, turns out his 
prow towards the waves. Gyas with loud voice called to him 
again, Menoetes, whither are you steering opposite ? once 
more, I say, keep to the rocks : And lo ! he espies Cloanthus 
pressing on his rear, and keeping a nearer compass. He, be- 
tween Gyas' ship and the roaring rocks, brushes along the 
left-hand path on the" inside, and suddenly gets a-head of him 
who was before, and leaving the goal, gains the safe seas. 
Then indeed severe grief blazed up in the inmost vitals of the 
youth : nor were his cheeks free from tears ; and regardless 
both of his own dignity and the "safety of his. friends, he hurls n 
dastardly Menoetes headlong from the lofty stern into the sea. 
Himself succeeds to the helm both as pilot and commander ; 
encourages his men, and turns his rudder to the shore. But 
when encumbered Menoetes with difficulty at length had risen 
from the deep bottom, being now in years, and languid by 
reason of his wet garments, he crawls up to the summit of the 
rock, and sat down on the dry cliff. The Trojans laughed 
both to see him fall, and to see him swimming ; and they re- 
new their laughter when from his breast he vomits up the 
£< briny wave. Here Sergestus ^nd Mnestheus, the two last, 
were fired with joyous hope to outstrip Gyas lagging behind. 
Sergestus gets the start, and makes up to the rock, nor yet 
had he the advantage by the whole length of the ship, only by 
a part : the rival Pristis partly presses him with her beak. 
But Mnestheus on the mid-deck walking among his crew ani- 
mates them : My Hectorean 12 bands, whom I chose associates 
in Troy's last fatal hour, now, now with keenness ply your 

11 " Deturbare, dejicere, demovere." Nonius ii. p. 540, ed. Gothof. B. 

12 Instead of" Hectorei socii," Rufinianus, § 35, p. 221, ed. Ruluik. 
reads, " hortor vos socii." B. 



B. v. 191—225. .3ENEID. 203 

oars; now exert that vigour, now that soul of which you 
were masters in the quicksands of Getulia, in the Ionian Sea, 
and on Malea's 13 coast, where waves succeeding waves pur- m 
sued us. / Your Mnestheus aspires not now to the foremost 
place, nor contends for the victory : though would to heaven ! 
but may those conquer to whom thou, O Neptune, hast given 
that boon. Let us be ashamed to come in the last. Surmount, 
my countrymen, and repel that criminal disgrace. They 
bend to the oar with the greatest emulation: the brazen- 
beaked galley trembles with the vast strokes, and the [watery] 
surface flies from under them. Then thick panting shakes 
their limbs and parched jaws : sweat flows from every pore 
in rivulets. Mere chance procured the men the wished-for 
honour : for while Sergestus, between Mnestheus and the goal, 
in his furious career, is pressing up the head of the ship to the 
rocks, and steers in a disadvantageous place, he unluckily stuck 
among the jutting rocks. The cliffs are shaken, and on* a 
sharp reef the struggling oars were loudly snapped, and the 
prow dashed against [the rocks] stood suspended. The marin- 
ers arise together, and with great clamour desist ; and apply 
stakes shod with iron, and poles with sharpened points, and 
gather up their shattered oars on the stream. Meanwhile 
Mnestheus rejoiced, and more afnimated by this same success, 
with the nimble march of the oars, and winds called to his 
aid, cuts the easy waves, and scuds away on the open sea. As 
a pigeon, whose nest and darling young are in some harbour- 
ing rock, suddenly scared from her covert, flies away into the 
fields, and, starting in a fright, gives a loud flapping with her 
wings against the nest ; then, shooting through the calm still 
air, skims 14 along the liquid way, nor moves her noble 
pinions : thus Mnestheus, thus the Pristis herself in her 
career, cuts the utmost boundary of the watery plain ; thus 
the mere vehemence of her motion carries her forward in her 
flying course. And first she leaves behind her Sergestus 
struggling against the high rocks and scanty shallows, in vain 
imploring aid, and trying to row on with shattered oars. Then 
he overtakes Gyas, and Chimera's self of mighty bulk : she 
yields, because she is deprived of her pilot. And now, in the 
very end of the course, Cloanthus alone is before him ; whom 

13 Malea, a promontory of Peloponnesus, on the southern coast of La- 
tonia, dangerous to navigators. 

14 Xtvpbv olfiov aiOkpog \paipu irTtpoiq. ^Esch. Prom. 394. B. 



204 ^NEID. b. y. 226—258 

he endeavours to reach, and, straining with the utmost vigour, 
pursues. Then, indeed, the shouts redouble, and all, with 
hearty applauses, stimulate him in the pursuit, and the sky 
resounds with roaring acclamations. These are fired with in- 
dignation, lest they should lose their possession of glory and 
the honour they have won ; and they are willing to barter life 
for renown. Those success cherishes ; they are able because 
they seem to be able. And, perhaps, they had both gained 
the prize with equalled beaks, 15 had not Cloanthus, stretching 
out his hands to the sea, poured forth prayers and invoked the 
gods to his vows : Ye gods, to whom belongs the empire of 
the main, over whose seas I sail, I, bound by vow, 16 will 
joyously present before your altars a snow-white bull on this 
shore, and cast forth the entrails on the briny wave [as an 
offering to you], and make a libation of pure wine. He said ; 
and the whole choir of the Nereids and Phorcus, 17 and the 
virgin Panopea, heard him from the bottom of the waves ; and 
father Portunus 18 himself, with his mighty hand, pushed on 
the galley in her course. She flies to land swifter than the 
south wind, and the winged arrow, and lodged herself in the 
harbour's deep recess. Then Anchises' son, having assembled 
all in form, proclaims Cloanthus conqueror, by the loud voice 
of the herald, and crowns his temples with verdant laurel ; 
allows him the choice of three bullocks as presents for the 
galleys, and gives him wine and a great talent of silver to 
carry away. On the leaders themselves he confers peculiar 
honours : to the conqueror he presents a mantle embroidered 
with gold, round which a thick fringe of Melibean purple ran 
in a double maze, and where the royal boy [Ganymede] in- 
woven pursues, with darts and full career, the fleet stags on 
woody Ida, eager, seeming to pant for breath ; whom Jove's 
swift armour-bearer, with his crooked talons, snatched aloft 
from Ida. The aged keepers in vain stretch out their hands 
to the stars, and the baying of the hounds rages to the skies. 
To him who by his merit won the second place, he gives to 

15 i. e. " they would have both come in together." B. 

18 He is said to be reus voti who has undertaken a vow on a certain 
condition ; and when that condition is fulfilled, then he is damnatus voti, 
or votis, i. e. the gods condemn and sentence him to pay his vow. 

17 Phorcus, a sea-deity, son of Pontus and Terra, and father cf thy 
Gorgons. 

M Portunus, a name of Melicerta. 



B. v. 259—294. ^NEID. 205 

wear a coat of mail, thick set with polished rings, and wrought 
in gold with a triple tissue, which he himself victorious had 
torn from Demoleus by rapid Simoi's under lofty Ilium: to be 
his ornament and defence in war. The servants, Phegeus 
and Sagaris, with united force, scarcely bore the cumbrous 
[armour] on their shoulders : but Demoleus, formerly clad 
therein, used to chase before him the straggling Trojans. For 
the third present he bestows two caldrons of brass, and silver 
bowls of finished work, and rough with figures. And thus 
now all rewarded, and elated with their wealth, were moving 
along, having their temples bound with scarlet fillets, when 
Sergestus brought up his hooted galley without honour, hardly 
with much art disentangled from the cruel rock, with the loss 
of her oars, and in one tier quite disabled. As often a ser- 
pent surprised in the highway, (which a brazen wheel hath 
gone athwart, or a traveller, coming heavy with a blow, hath 
left half dead and mangled by a stone,) attempting in vain to 
fly, shoots his body in long wreaths ; in one part fierce, dart- 
ing fire from his eyes, and rearing aloft his hissing neck ; the 
other part, maimed with the wound, retards him, twisting [his 
body] in knots, and winding himself up on his own limbs : 
with such kind of steerage the ship slowly moved along : her 
sails, however, she expands, and enters the port with full sail. 
iEneas gladly confers on Sergestus the promised reward for 
preserving the vessel, and bringing the crew safe back. To 
him is given a female slave, not unskilful in the works of 
Minerva, Pholoe, a Cretan by extraction, with her two chil- 
dren on the breast. 

This game being over, pious iEneas advances to a grassy 
plain, which woods on winding hills enclosed around ; and in 
the mid valley was the circuit of a theatre, whither the hero, 
in the midst of many thousands, repaired, and took a high 
seat. Here he offers inviting rewards to those who chanced 
to be inclined to enter the lists in the rapid race, and exhibits 
the prizes. The Trojans and Sicilians, in mingled throngs, 
convene from every quarter : Nisus and Euryalus 19 the first : 

19 Nisus and Euryalus, two Trojans who accompanied JEneas to Italy, 
and immortalized themselves by their mutual friendship. They fought 
with great bravery against the Rutulians, but at last Nisus perished in 
attempting the rescue of his friend Euryalus, who had fallen into the 
demy's hands. 



200 ^INEID. b. v. 295—333. 

Euryalus, distinguished by his lovely form and blooming 
youth ; Nisus, by his true affection for the boy : whom next 
Diores followed, a royal youth of Priam's illustrious line. 
After him Salius, and with him Patron ; of whom the one 
was an Acarnanian, the other from Arcadia, of the blood of 
the Tegasan race. Next two Sicilian youths, Elymus and 
Panopes, trained to the woods, the companions of aged 
Acestes ; and many more besides, whom fame hath buried in 
obscurity. In the midst of whom thus -ZEneas spoke : Mark 
these my words, and attend with joy : none of this throng 
shall go unrewarded by me. Two bright Gnossian 20 darts of 
polished steel, and a carved battle-axe of silver, I will give 
[each man] to bear away. This honour shall be conferred 
equally on all. The first three shall receive prizes, and shall 
have their heads bound with swarthy olive. Let the first con- 
queror have a steed adorned with rich trappings ; the second 
an Amazonian 21 quiver full of Thracian arrows, which a broad 
belt of gold around embraces, and a buckle clasps with a 
tapering gem: and let the third content himself with this 
Grecian helmet. When he had thus said, they take their re- 
spective places, and upon hearing the signal, start in a trice, 
and quit the barrier, darting forward like a tempest : at the 
same time they mark the goal. Nisus gets the start, and 
springs away far before the rest, outflying the winds and 
winged lightning. Next to him, but next by a long interval, 
follows Salius : then after him Euryalus, with some space left 
[between them] ; and Elymus follows Euryalus ; close by 
whose side, lo ! next Diores flies, and now jostles heel with 
heel, pressing on his shoulder ; and, had more stages remained, 
he had skipped away before him, or left the victory dubious. 
And now they were almost in the utmost bound, and, ex- 
hausted, were approaching towards the very goal ; when un- 
happy Nisus slides in a slippery puddle of blood, as by chance 
it had been shed on the ground from victims slain, and soaked 
the verdant grass. Here the youth, already flushed with the 
joy of victory, could not support his tottering steps on the 
ground he trod, but fell headlong amidst the noisome filth and 

20 Gnossian darts, i. e. Cretan darts, from Cnossus, or Gnossus, a city 
of Crete. 

tl Amazonian quivers : the Amazons were a warlike nation of women, 
who lived near the river Thermodon in Pontus. 






« t. 334-370. ^ENEID. 207 

sacred gore. He, however, was not then forgetful of Eury- 
alus, nor of their mutual affection ; for, as he rose from the 
slippery mire, he opposed himself to Salius : he again, tum- 
bling backward, lay prostrate on the clammy sand. Euryalus 
springs forward, and victorious by the kindness of his friend, 
holds the foremost place, and flies with favouring applause 
and acclamation. Elymus comes in next; and Diores, now 
[entitled to] the third prize. Here Salius fills the whole as- 
sembly of the ample pit, and the front seats of the fathers, 
with loud outcries, and demands the prize to be given to him 
self, from whom it was snatched away by unfair means. The 
favour [of the spectators] befriends Euryalus, and his grace- 
ful tears, and merit that appears more lovely in a comely per- 
son. Diores aids him, and exclaims with bawling voice ; who 
succeeded to a prize, and had a claim to the last reward in 
vain, if the first honours be given to Salius. Then father 
iEneas said: Your rewards, youths, stand fixed, and none 
shall turn the prize out of its due course : give me leave to 
compassionate the disaster of my innocent friend. This said, 
he gives to Salius the huge hide of a Getulian lion, ponderous 
with shaggy fur and gilt claws. Upon this Nisus says, If to 
the vanquished such rewards be given, and your pity be ex- 
tended to those that fell, what gifts are due to Nisus? [to 
me,] who by my merit won the first prize, had not the same 
unkind fortune which bore Salius down overpowered me. 
And with these words he at the same time showed his face 
and limbs besmeared with oozy filth. The excellent father 
smiled on his plight, and ordered the buckler to be produced, 
Didymaon's ingenious work, torn down by the Greeks from 
the sacred posts of Neptune's temple. With this signal pre- 
sent he rewards the illustrious youth. 

Next, when the race was finished, and the prizes were dis- 
tributed : Now, [says he,] whoever he may be in whose breast 
courage and resolution dwell, let him stand forth, and raise 
aloft his arms, having his hands bound [with the cestus]. He 
said, and proposes a double prize for the combat : to the con- 
queror a bullock decked with gold and fillets ; a sword and 
shining helm, the solace of the vanquished. Without delay, 
Dares shows his face with strength prodigious, and rears him- 
self amidst the loud murmurs of the spectators ; he who alone 
was wont to enter the lists with Paris ; the same at the tomb 



208 J3NTCTD. tj. v. 371— 401. 

where mighty Hector lies, struck down victorious Butes 22 of 
mighty frame, who boasted his descent from the race of 
Amycus, king of Bebrycia, and stretched him gasping on the 
tawny sand. Such Dares uprears his lofty head first in the 
lists, and presents his broad shoulders, and in alternate throws 
brandishes his arms around, and beats the air with his fists. 
For him a match is sought; nor dares one of all that numer- 
ous crowd encounter him, and draw the gauntlets on his hands. 
Elated, therefore, and imagining that all had quitted preten- 
sion to the prize, he stood before ^Eneas' feet : and then, with- 
out further delay, with his left hand he seizes the bull by the 
horns, and thus speaks : Goddess-born, if no one will dare to 
trust himself to the combat, where will be the end of hanging 
on ? how long must I be detained ? Order the presents to 
be brought. At the same time all the Trojans murmured their 
consent, and ordered the promised prizes to be delivered to 
him. Then venerable Acestes thus chides Entellus, as he sat 
beside him on the verdant grassy couch : Entellus, in vain 
[reputed] the stoutest of champions once, will you then suffer 
so great prizes to be carried off without any contest ? Where 
is now that god of ours, Eryx, whom you in vain gave out to 
be your master ? where is your fame through all Trinacria ? 
where the spoils that used to hang from your roof ? He to this 
immediately [replies] : It is not that my thirst of praise is 
gone, or my glory has departed, driven away by fear : but my 
frozen blood languishes through enfeebling age, and the strength 
worn out in my body is benumbed. Did I but now enjoy that 
youth which once I had, and wherein that varlet triumphs 
with vain confidence, then would I have taken the field ; not 
indeed induced by the prize of this fair bullock, for I regard 
not rewards. Thus having spoken, he then throws into the 
midst a pair of gauntlets 23 of huge weight ; wherewith fierce 

22 Butes, a descendant of Amycus, king of Bebrycia, (Bithynia,) killed 
by Dares at the tomb of Hector. At the funeral games of Anchises in 
Sicily, Dares was overcome at the combat of the cestus, by Entellus, a 
friend of Acestes. 

23 Crestus. The caestus was a sort of leathern guards for the hands, 
composed of thongs, and commonly filled with lead or iron, to add force 
and weight to the blow : though others, indeed, will have them to have 
been a kind of whirlbats or bludgeons of wood, with lead at one end. 
But the description Virgil gives of these weapons, particularly when ho 
calls them immensa volumina vinclorum, 408, and sa*'s, 425, 



„. v . 402—429. .ENEID. 209 

Eryx was wont to engage in the fight, and to brace his arms 
with the stubborn hide. Amazement seized their minds. Seven 
huge thongs of such vast oxen lay stiffening with lead and iron 
sewed within. Above all Dares himself stands aghast, and 
utterly declines the combat : and the magnanimous son of 
Anchises this way and that way poises the weight and the 
complicated folds of the gauntlets. Then the aged champion 
thus spake from his soul : What if any [of you] had seen the 
gauntlet and arms of Hercules himself, and the bloody 24 com- 
bat on this very shore ? These arms your brother Eryx for- 
merly wore. You see them yet stained with blood and shat- 
tered brains* With these he stood against great Alcides : with 
these I was wont [to combat], while better blood supplied me 
with strength, nor envious age as yet had scattered grey hairs 
over my temples. But if Trojan Dares decline these our 
arms, and if the pious iEneas be so determined, and Acestes, 
who prompts me [to the fight], approve, let us be equally 
matched : To oblige you, I lay aside the weapons of Eryx ; 
dismiss your fears, and do you put off your Trojan gauntlets. 
This said, he flung from his shoulders his double vest, and 
bared his huge limbs, his big bones and sinewy arms, and 
stood forth of mighty frame in the middle of the field. Then 
the sire, sprung from Anchises, brought forth equal gauntlets, 
and bound both their hands with equal arms. Forthwith 
each on his tiptoes stood erect, and undaunted raised his arms 
aloft in the air. Far from the blow they backward withdrew 
their towering heads: now hand to hand they join in close 
encounter, and provoke the fight ; the one having the advan- 

Et paribus palmas amborum innexuit armis, 
agrees to the former idea, but by no means to the latter. They were tied 
about the arm as high as the elbow, both as a guard to the arm, and to 
keep them from sliding off. Some derive the name from ice<=rov, a girdle ; 
.others from caedo, to kill ; which last answers well enough to the nature 
of the combat, which was so cruel and bloody, that Lycurgus made a law 
forbidding the Lacedaemonians to practise it. 

24 The combat is called tristis, woeful, or bloody, because Eryx was 
slain in it by Hercules. The occasion of the combat is thus related. 
Hercules having put to death Geryon, king of Spain, was returning with 
his booty, which was a herd of fine oxen : and having visited Sicily in hir 
way, received a challenge from Eryx, king of the island, to fight him with 
the gauntlet. If the victory fell to Eryx, he was to have Hercules' s 
oxen; but if he was vanquished, then the whole island of Sicily was to b€ 
Hercules's property. Thus Eryx lost both his life and his crown. 

r 



210 jENEID b. v. 430-465. 

tage in agility of foot, and relying on Lis youth ; the other 
surpassing in limbs and bulk ; but his feeble knees sunk under 
his trembling body : his difficult breathing shakes his vast 
frame. The heroes deal many blows to one another with 
erring aim, and many on the hollow sides redouble ; from 
their breasts [the thumps] resound aloud, and round their 
ears and temples thick strokes at random fly; their jaws 
crackle under the heavy blow. Enteilus stands stiff and un- 
moved in the same firm posture, only with his body and 
watchful eyes evades the strokes. The other, as one who 
besieges a lofty city with batteries, or under arms besets a 
mountain fortress, explores now these, now those approaches, 
and artfully traverses the whole ground, and pursues his 
attack with various assaults, still baffled. Enteilus, rising on 
tiptoe, extended his right arm, and lifted it on high: the 
other nimbly foresaw the blow descending from above, and 
with agility of body shifting, slipped from under it. Entei- 
lus spent his strength on the wind ; and, both by the force of 
his own natural weight, and the violence of the motion, falls 
to the ground of himself with his heavy bulk ; as sometimes, 
on Erymanthus 25 or spacious Ida, a hollow pine torn from the 
roots tumbles down at once. The Trojan and Sicilian youth 
rise together with eager feelings : their acclamations pierce 
the skies ; and Acestes first advances in haste, and in pity 
raises from the ground his friend of equal age. But the hero, 
not disabled nor daunted by his fall, returns to the combat 
more fierce, and indignation rouses his spirit : then shame and 
conscious worth set all the powers of his soul on fire ; and 
inflamed he drives Dares headlong over the whole plain, re- 
doubling blows on blows, sometimes with the right hand, 
sometimes with the left. No stop, no stay : as thick showers 
of hail come rattling down on the house-tops, so with thick 
repeated blows, the hero thumps Dares with each hand, and 
tosses him hither and thither. Then father JEneas suf- 
fered not their fury longer to exert itself, nor Enteilus to 
rage with such fierce animosity ; but put an end to the com- 
bat, and rescued Dares quite overpowered, soothing him with 
words, and bespeaks him in these terms : Unhappy ! what 
strong infatuation possessed your mind? Are you not sensible 

25 Erymanthus, a mountain of Arcadia, ^here Hercules slew the famous 
Er) manthian boar. 



B< v . 466— 504. jENEID. 211 

of [his having] foreign assistance, and that the gods have 
changed sides ? Yield to the deity. He said, and by his word 
put an end to the combat. As for Dares, his trusty com- 
panions conduct him to the ships, dragging his feeble limbs, 
and tossing his head to either side, disgorging from his throat 
clotted gore, and teeth mingled with his blood ; and, at ^Eneas' 
call, they take the helmet and sword, leave the palm and bull 
to Entellus. At this the conqueror, in soul elated, and proud 
of the bull, says : Goddess-born, and ye Trojans, hence know 
both what strength I have had in my youthful limbs, and from 
what death you have saved Dares. He said, and stood against 
the front of the opposite bull that was set for the prize of the 
combat, and rearing himself up, with his right hand drawn 
back, levelled the cruel gauntlets directly between the horns, 
and, battering the skull, drove through the bones. Down 
drops the ox, and, in the pangs of death, falls sprawling to the 
ground. Over him he utters these words : This life, more 
acceptable, O Eryx, I give thee in exchange for Dares' death ; 
here, victorious, I lay down the gauntlets with my art. 

JEneas forthwith invites such as may be willing to try their 
skill with the swift arrow, and sets prizes : and with his 
mighty hand raises a mast taken from Serestus' ship, and from 
the high mast hangs a fluttering dove by a rope thrust through 
at which they may aim their shafts. The competitors assem- 
ble ; and a brazen helmet received the shuffled lots. The lot 
of Hippocoon, 26 the son of Hyrtacus, comes out first of all 
with favouring shouts ; whom follows Mnestheus, lately victor 
in the naval strife, Mnestheus, crowned with green olive. The 
third is Eurytion, the brother, illustrious Pandarus, of thee, 
who, once urged to violate the treaty, didst first hurl thy dart 
into the midst of the Greeks. Acestes remained the last, and 
in the bottom of the helmet ; he too adventuring with his 
[aged] hand to essay the feats of youth. Then with stout 
force they bend their pliant bows, each man according to his 
ability, and draw forth their arrows from their quivers. And 
first the arrow of young Hyrtacus' son, shot through the sky 
from the whizzing string, cleaves the fleeting air, both reaches 
[the mark], and fixes in the wood of the opposite mast. The 

26 Hippocoon was brother to Nisus, and the friend of ^Eneas. Eury- 
tion and Pandarus were sons of Lycaon ; the latter was slain by Diomede, 
in the Trojan war. 

p 2 



212 ^NEID. b. v. 505— 542, 

mast quivered; and the frighted bird, by its wings, showed 
signs of fear ; and all quarters rang with loud applause. Next 
keen Mnestheus stood with his bow close drawn, 27 aiming on 
high, and directed his eye and arrow both together. But it 
was his misfortune not to be able to hit the bird itself with his 
shaft ; he burst the cords and hempen ligaments to which it 
hung tied by the foot from the high mast. She with winged 
speed shot into the air and dusky clouds. Then Eurytion in 
eager haste, having his arrow long before extended on the 
ready bow, poured forth a vow to his brother [Pandarus], as 
he now beheld the joyful dove in the void sky, and pierced 
her under a dark cloud as she was clapping her wings. She 
dropped down dead, and left her life among the stars of heaven ; 
and, falling to the ground, brings back the arrow fastened 
[in the wound]. Acestes alone remained after the prize was 
lost; who, notwithstanding, discharged his shaft into the 
aerial regions, the sire displaying both his address and twang- 
ing bow. 28 Here is unexpectedly presented to view a prodigy, 
designed to be of high portent ; this the important event after- 
wards declared, and the alarming soothsayers predicted the 
omens late. For the arrow, flying among the watery clouds, 
took fire, and with the flames marked out a path, till, being 
quite consumed, it vanished into thin air ; as often stars loos- 
ened from the firmament shoot across, and flying draw [after 
them] a train of light. The Sicilians and Trojans stood fixed 
in astonishment, and besought the gods ; nor does mighty 
iEneas reject the omen, but, embracing Acestes overjoyed, 
loads him with ample rewards, and thus bespeaks him : Ac- 
cept these, O sire, for the great king of heaven, by these 
omens, has signified his will, that you receive the honour [of 
the victory, though] out of course. This gift, which belonged 
to aged Anchises' self, you shall possess ; a bowl embossed 
with figures, which Thracian Cisseus formerly gave for a 
magnificent present to my sire, as a monument and pledge of 
his love. This said, he crowns his temples with verdant 
laurel, and in view of all pronounces Acestes the first con- 
queror. Nor does good Eurytion envy him the preference in 
honour, though he alone struck down the bird from the ex- 

27 This is the force of " adducto." denoting that the bow was fully 
drawn. Cf. Sil. i. 334. Ovid Met. i. 435. B. 

28 i. e. having lost the mark, he showed to what height he could shoot 



E. v. 643—577. ^NEID. 213 

alted sky. He next comes in for a prize, who broke the cords ; 
the last is he who pierced the mast with his winged shaft. 

But father JEneas, the games not being yet ended, calls to 
him the son of Epytus, young lulus' guardian and companion, 
and thus whispers in his trusty ear : Go quick, says he, desire 
Ascanius (if he has now gotten ready with him his company 
of boys, and has arranged the movements of the horses) to bring 
up his troops, and show himself in arms in honour of his 
grandsire. He himself orders the crowd to remove from the 
extended circus, and the field to be cleared. The boys ad- 
vance in procession, and uniformly shine on the bridled steeds 
full in their parents' sight ; in admiration of whom, as they 
career along, the whole Trojan and Trinacrian youth join in 
acclamations. All in due form had their hair pressed with a 
trim garland. They bear two cornel spears pointed with steel ; 
some have polished quivers on their shoulders. A pliant cir- 
cle of wreathed gold goes from the upper part of their breasts 
about their necks. Three troops of horsemen, and three 
leaders, range over the plain : twelve striplings following 
each, shine in a separate body, and with commanders equally 
matched. One band of youths young Priam, bearing his 
grandsire's name, leads triumphant ; thy illustrious offspring, 
O Polites, 29 who shall one day do honour to the Italians, whom 
a Thracian courser bears, dappled with white spots ; the fet- 
locks of his foremost feet are white, and, tossing his head 
aloft, he displays a white front. The second is Atys, 30 from 
whom the Attii of Rome have derived their origin ; little 
Atys, a boy beloved by the boy lulus. Iiilus the last, and in 
beauty distinguished from all the rest, rode on a Sidonian 
steed which fair Dido had given him as a monument and 
pledge of her love. The rest of the youths ride on Trinacrian 
horses of aged Acestes. The Trojans with shouts of applause 
receive them anxious [for honour], 31 and are well-pleased 
with the sight, and recognise the features of the aged sires. 
Now when the joyous youths had paraded on horseback round 

29 Polites, a son of Priam and Hecuba, whose son, also named Priam, 
accompanied iEneas to Italy, and was one of the friends of young 
Ascanius. 

30 Atys, who also accompanied iEneas, is supposed to have been the 
progenitor of the family of the Attii at Rome. 

8i i. e. " eager with excitement." So Servius, " glorise cupidiiato 
ijllkitos." B. 



214 ^JNEID. b. v. 578— 6C3. 

the whole ring, and full in their parents' view, Epytus' son, 
from afar, gave a signal to them by a shout, as they stood 
ready, and clanked with the lash. They broke away in parted 
order, keeping the same front, and broke up the troops into 
separate bands by threes ; and again, upon summons given, 
they wheeled about, and bore their hostile spears [on one 
another]. 32 Then they again advance, and again retreat in 
their opposite grounds, and alternately involve intricate circles 
within circles, and call up the representation of a fight in 
arms. And now flying they expose their defenceless backs ; 
now in hostile manner turn their darts [on each other] : now, 
peace being made up, they are borne along together. As of 
old in lofty Crete was a labyrinth famed for having had an 
alley formed by dark intricate walls, and a puzzling maze 
with a thousand avenues, where a [single] mistake, unob- 
served, but not to be retraced, frustrated the marks for guiding 
one on the way ; in just such course the sons of the Trojans 
involve their motions, and with intricate movement represent 
fighting and flying in sport ; like dolphins, that, swimming 
through the watery deep, cut the Carpathian or Libyan Sea, 
and gambol amid the waves. This manner of tilting, and 
those mock fights, Ascanius first renewed, and taught the 
ancient Latins to celebrate, when he was enclosing Alba 
Longa with walls : as he himself, when a boy, as the Trojan 
youth with him [had practised them], so the Albans taught 
their posterity ; hence, in after times, imperial Rome received 
them, and preserved the same in honour of her ancestors : and 
at this day it is called [the game of] Troy, 33 and the boys 
r that perform it], the Trojan band. 

Thus far the trials of skill were exhibited [by ^Eneas in 

32 I have followed Anthon. The student will find an excellent ex- 
planation of the manoeuvres in his notes. B. 

33 This game, commonly known by the name of the Lusus Trojse, is 
purely of Virgil's own invention, he had no hint of it from Homer. This 
he has substituted in the room of three of his, the wrestling, the single 
combat, and the discus, and, in the opinion of a very judicious modern, 
it is worth all those three in Homer. This game Virgil added to please 
Augustus, who had at that time renewed the same. Suetonius tells us, 
Trojse ludum edidit (Augustus) frequentissime, majorum minorumve 
puerorum delectu : prisci decorique moris existimans, clarse stirpis indo- 
iem sic innotescere, &c. Suet, in August, cap. 43. Julius Caesar had 
al*o exhibited the same before, as we learn from the same author, Trqjam 
lusit turma duplex, majorum minorumve puerorum. In Jul. cap. 36. 



B . v . 604—638. JENEID. 215 

honour] of his sanctified sire. Here shifting Fortune, changing, 
first altered her faith. While they are celebrating the anni- 
versary festival at the tomb with various games, Saturnian 
Juno despatched Iris from heaven to the Trojan fleet, and with 
the fanning winds speeds her on her way, forming many plots, 
and having not yet glutted her old revenge. The virgin god- 
dess accelerating her way, seen by none, amidst the bow with 
a thousand colours, shoots down the path with nimble motion. 
She descries the vast concourse ; then, surveying the shore, 
sees the port deserted, and the fleet deserted. But at a dis- 
tance the Trojan dames apart were mourning the loss of An- 
chises on the desolate shore, and all of them with tears in 
their eyes viewed the deep ocean : Ah ! that so many shoals, 
such a length of sea should still remain for us after all our 
toils ! was the sole complaint of all. They pray for a city, 
are sick of enduring the hardships of the main. Therefore 
she, not unpractised in mischief, throws herself into the midst 
of them, and lays aside the mien and vesture of a goddess. 
She assumes the figure of Beroe, the aged wife of Thracian 
Doryclus, 34 who was of noble birth, and once had renown, and 
offspring. And thus she joins in discourse with the Trojan 
matrons : Ah ! unhappy we, who were not dragged forth to 
death in the war by the Grecian host under our native walls ! 
Ill-fated race ! for what miserable doom does fortune reserve 
you ? The seventh summer since the destruction of Troy is 
already rolled away, while we, having measured all lands and 
seas, so many inhospitable rocks and barbarous climes, are 
driven about ; while along the wide ocean we pursue an ever- 
fleeing Italy, and are tossed on the waves. Here are the 
realms of his brother Eryx, and his friend Acestes : who pre- 
vents our founding walls, and giving our citizens a city ? Ah, 
my country, and our gods in vain saved from the enemy ! 
shall a city never more arise to be named from Troy ? Shall I 
never see the Hectorean rivers, Xanthus and Simois ? Nay, 
lather come, and burn with me our cursed ships. For in my 
sleep the ghost of the prophetess Cassandra seemed to pre- 
sent me with flaming brands : Here, says she, seek for Troy, 
here is your fixed residence. Now is the time for action. 

u Doryclus, a brother of Phineas, king of Thrace, and the husband of 
Beroe, whose form was assumed by Iris, when she advised the Trojan 
women to burn the fleet of iEneas in Sicily. 



2 1 6 JENEID. b. v. 639—673. 

Nor let there be delay after such signs from heaven. Lo ! 
here are four altars to Neptune : the god himself supplies us 
with fire-brands, and with courage [for the attempt]. With 
these words, she violently snatches the destroying fire, and, 
lifting up her right hand with exerted force, waves it at a 
distance, throws it. Roused are the minds and stunned the 
hearts of the Trojan matrons. Then one of the number, 
Pyrgo, 35 the most advanced in years, the royal nurse to 
Priam's numerous sons, [said,] Matrons, this is not Beroe 
whom you have here, it is not she from Rhasteum, the wife of 
Doryclus : mark the characters of divine beauty, eyes bright 
and sparkling ; what breath, what looks ; or the accents of 
her voice, or her gait as she moves. Myself lately, as I came 
hither, left Beroe sick, in great anguish that she alone was cut 
off from such a solemnity, and was not to pay the honours due 
to Anchises. She said. But the matrons first began to view 
the ships with malignant eyes, dubious and wavering between 
their wretched fondness for the present land, and the realms 
that summoned them by the Fates ; when on equal poised 
wings the goddess mounted into the sky, and in her flight cut 
the spacious bow beneath the clouds. Then, indeed, con- 
founded at the prodigy, and driven by madness, they shriek 
out together, and snatch the flame from the inmost hearths. 36 
Some rifle the altars, and fling boughs, and saplings, and 
brands together ; the conflagration rages with loose reins 
amidst the rowers' seats, and oars, and painted sterns of fir. 
Eumelus conveys the tidings to Anchises' tomb, and to the 
benches of the theatre, that the ships were burned ; and they 
themselves behold the sparks of fire flying up in a pitchy 
cloud. And first, Ascanius, as joyous he led the cavalcade, 
just as he was, with full speed rode up to the troubled camp ; 
nor was it in the power of his guardians, half-dead for fear, to 
check him. What strange frenzy this ? whither, he cries, ah ! 
my wretched countrywomen, whither would you now ? It i3 
not the enemy, or the hostile camp of the Greeks, but your 
own hopes ye burn. Here am I, your own Ascanius. He 
threw at their feet the empty helmet, which he wore while 

35 Pyrgo, the nurse of Priam's children, who followed iEneas in his 
flight from Troy. 

26 i. e. from the neighbouring dwellings. The fire on the altars was 
not sufficient. B. 



R v . 674—706, jENEID 217 

calling forth the images of war in sport. At the same time 
iEneas and the bands of the Trojans came up in haste. But 
the matrons for fear fly different ways up and down the shore, 
and skulking repair to the woods and hollow rocks wherever 
there are any. They loathe the deed, the light, and penitent 
recognise their friends; and Juno is dislodged from their 
breasts. But the flames and conflagration did not therefore 
abate their ungovernable fury. The tow lives under the 
moistened boards, disgorging languid smoke ; the smothered 
fire gradually consumes the keel, and the contagious ruin 
spreads through the whole body of the vessel. Neither the 
efforts of the heroes, nor outpoured streams, avail. Then 
pious iEneas tore his robe from his shoulders, and invoked 
the gods to his aid, and stretched out his hands : Almighty 
Jove, if thou dost not yet abhor all the Trojans to a man, if 
thy ancient goodness regards human disasters with commiser- 
ation, grant now, O father, that our fleet may escape from 
these flames, and save from desolation the humbled state of 
the Trojans. Or, to complete thy vengeance, hurl me down 
to the death with thy vindictive thunder, if I so deserve, and 
crush me here with thy right hand. Scarce had he spoken 
these words, when a black tempest of bursting rain rages with 
uncommon fury : both hills 37 and valleys quake with thunder ; 
the shower in turbid rain, and condensed into pitchy dark- 
ness by the thick-beating south winds, pours down from the 
whole atmosphere. The ships are filled from above ; the 
half-burned boards are drenched, till the whole smoke is ex- 
tinguished, and all the ships, with the loss of four, are saved 
from the pest. 

But father JEneas, struck with the bitter misfortune, turned 
his anxious thoughts now this way, now that, pondering with 
himself whether fhe should settle in the territories of Sicily, 
regardless of the Fates, or steer his course to the Italian 
coast. Then aged Nautes, 38 whom above others Tritonian 
Pallas taught, and rendered illustrious for deep science, gave 
forth these responses, what either the great displeasure of the 

37 More literally, "the steeps of land." Cf. Symmach. Epist. vii. 69, 
" ardua clivi." Apul. Met. L, " ardua montium." Varro, R. R. ii. 10, 
"montium arduitatem." Hieron. Epist. 22, " aspera montium." B. 

38 Nautes, a Trojan soothsayer, who consoled iEneas when his fleet 
had been burnt in Sicily. He was the progenitor of the Nautii, at Rome, 
a family to whom the Palladium of Troy was afterwards intrusted. 



218 ^ENEID. b. v. 707-739. 

gods portended, or what the series of the Fates required. 
And thus, solacing iEneas, he begins : Goddess-born, let us 
follow the Fates, whether they invite us backward or forward c 
come what will, every fortune is to be surmounted by pa- 
tience. You have Trojan Acestes of divine origin : admit 
him the partner of your counsels, and unite yourself to him 
your willing friend : to him deliver up such as are supernu- 
merary, now that you have lost some ships ; choose out those 
who are sick of the great enterprise, and of your fortunes ; 
the old with length of years oppressed, and the matrons fa- 
tigued with the voyage ; select the feeble part of your com- 
pany, and such as dread the danger, and, since they are tired 
out, let them have a settlement in these territories : they shall 
call the city Acesta 39 by a licensed name. 

Then indeed iEneas, fired by these words of his aged friend, 
is distracted in his mind amidst a thousand cares. Now sable 
Night, mounted on her chariot with two horses, held the skies, 
when the form of his father Anchises, gliding down from the 
skies, suddenly seemed to pour forth these words : Son, once 
dearer to me than life, while life remained ; my son, severely 
tried by the fates of Troy ; hither I come by the command of 
Jove, who averted the fire from your fleet, and at length 
showed pity from the high heaven. Comply with the excel- 
lent counsel which aged Nautes now offers : carry with you 
to Italy the choice of the youths, the stoutest hearts. In 
Latium you have to subdue a hardy race, rugged in manners. 
But first, my son, visit Pluto's infernal mansions, and, in 
quest of an interview with me, cross the deep floods of Aver- 
nus : for not accursed Tartarus, nor the dreary ghosts, have 
me in their possession ; but I inhabit the delightful seats of 
the blest, and Elysium. 40 Hither the chaste Sibyl shall con- 
duct thee after shedding profusely the blood of black victims. 
Then you shall learn your whole progeny, and what walls are 
assigned to you. And now farewell: humid Night wheels 
about her mid course, 41 and the dawning light, which fiercely 
summons me away, hath breathed upon me with panting steeds. 

39 Acesta, or Segesta, a city of Sicily, built by iEneas in honour of 
king Acestes. 

40 Elysium, a place in the infernal regions, where, according to the 
mythology of the ancients, the souls of the virtuous were placed after 
death. The Elysian fields, according to Virgil, were situated in Italy 

41 The reader will call to mind the words of the ghost in " Hamlet." B. 



B, v. 740- -774. JENEID. 219 

He said; and vanished like smoke into the fleeting air. 
Whither so precipitant ? says then iEneas ; whither dost thou 
whirl away ? whom fliest thou ? or who debars me from my 
embraces ? So saying, he awakes the embers and dormant fire, 
and suppliant pays veneration to his Trojan domestic god, and 
the shrine of hoary Vesta, with a holy cake and full censer. 
Forthwith he calls his followers, and first of all Acestes, and 
informs them of Jove's command, and the instructions of his 
beloved sire, and of the present settled purpose of his soul. 
No obstruction is given to his plans ; nor is Acestes averse 
to the proposals made. They enrol 42 the matrons for the city, 
and set on shore as many of the people as were willing, souls 
that had no desire of high renown. Themselves renew the 
benches, and repair the timbers half consumed by the flames ; 
fit oars and cables to the ships ; in number small, but of ani- 
mated valour for war. 

Meanwhile -ZEneas marked out a city with the plough, and 
assigns the houses by lot : here he orders a [second] Ilium 
to arise,' and these places to be called after those of Troy. 
Trojan Acestes rejoices in his kingdom; institutes a court of 
justice ; and having assembled his senators, dispenses laws. 
Then on the top of Mount Eryx a temple approaching the 
stars is raised to Idalian Venus ; 43 and a priest is assigned to 
the tomb of Anchises, with a grove hallowed far and wide. 
And now the whole people had kept the festival for nine days, 
and sacrifices had been offered on the altars, peaceful breezes 
have smoothed the seas, and the south wind in repeated gales 
invites into the deep. Loud lamentations along the winding 
shores arise : in mutual embraces they linger out both night 
and day. Even the matrons, and those to whom the face of the 
sea lately seemed horrid, and its divinity 44 intolerably severe, 
would willingly go, and submit to all the toil of the voyage ; 
whom good .ZEneas solaces in friendly terms, and, weeping, 
commends to his kinsman Acestes. Then he orders to sacri- 
fice to Eryx three calves, and a female lamb to the tempests, 
and to weigh anchor after the due rites were performed. He 
himself, having his head bound with a trim garland of olivo 

42 " Transcribere " is a word properly used of colonizing. SeeServius 
Cf. Seneca, Episc. 4, " te in viros philosophia transcripseris." B. 
** So called from Mount Ida. 
44 But " nomen " seems simpler. See Anthon. B. 



220 JENEID. b. v. 775— 809. 

leaves, standing on the extremity of the prow, holds the cup, 
and casts forth the entrails on the briny waves, and pours the 
limpid wine. A wind arising from the stern accompanies them 
in their course. The crew, with emulous vigour, lash the sea 
and brush its smooth surface. 

Meanwhile Venus, harassed with cares, addresses Neptune, 
and pours forth these complaints from her breast : The heavy 
resentment and insatiable passion of Juno compel me, O Nep- 
tune, to descend to all entreaties ; Juno, whom neither length 
of time or any piety softens ; and who is not quelled and sub- 
dued even by Jove's imperial sway, or by the Fates. It is not 
enough for her to have effaced the city from among the Phry- 
gian race by her unhallowed hate, nor to have dragged its re- 
lics through all sorts of suffering ; she persecutes the ashes and 
bones of ruined Troy. The causes of such furious resentment 
are to her best known. Yourself can witness for me what a 
heaving tempest she suddenly raised of late on the Libyan 
waves. The whole sea she blended in confusion with the sky, 
vainly relying on JEolus' storms ; this presuming [even] in 
your realms. Lo also (O wickedness !) by acting upon the 
Trojan matrons, she hath shamefully burned the ships, and 
forced their friends, now that they have lost their fleet, to 
abandon them in an unknown land. As to what remains, may 
they be allowed, I pray, to sail over the waves secure by thy 
protection : may they be allowed to reach Laurentian Tiber ; 45 
if I ask what may be granted, if the Destinies assign those set* 
tlements. Then the Saturnian ruler of the deep ocean thus 
replied : Cytherea, 46 it is perfectly just that you confide in my 
realms, whence you derive your birth : besides, I have a just 
claim ; [for] often have I checked the furious rage and mad- 
dening tumult of sea and sky. Nor was I less careful of your 
JEneas on earth (I call Xanthus and Simois to witness). 
When Achilles, pursuing the breathless troops of Troy, dashed 
them against their walls, gave many thousands to death, and 
the choked rivers groaned, and Xanthus could not find his 
way, nor disembogue himself into the sea ; then in a hollow 
cloud I snatched away JEneas, while encountering the mighty 
Achilles with strength and gods unequal ; though I was de- 

45 Laurentian Tiber, so called from Laurentum, (Paterno,) the caj.'.al 
of Latium in the reign of Latinus. 

46 Cytherea. A surname of Venus. 



*. v. 810—842. JENEID. 22 1 

pirous of overthrowing from the lowest foundation the walls 
of perj ured Troy, reared by my hands. And still I am of tho 
same disposition : banish your fear ; he shall arrive safe at the 
port of Avernus, which you desire. One only, lost in the deep, 
shall he seek for : one life shall be given for many. 47 The sire, 
having by these words soothed and cheered the heart of the 
goddess, yokes his steeds to his golden car, puts the foaming 
bit into their fierce mouths, and throws out all the reins. 
Along the surface of the seas he nimbly glides in his azure 
car. The waves subside, and the swelling ocean smooths its 
liquid pavement under the thundering axle : the clouds fly off 
the face of the expanded sky. Then [appear] the various forms 
of his retinue, unwieldy whales, 48 and the aged train of Glaucus, 
and Palemon, 49 Ino's son, the swift Tritons, and the whole 
band of Phorcus. On the left are Thetis, Melite, and the virgin 
Panopae, Nessee, Spio, Thalia, and Cymodoce. Upon this, 
soft joys in their turn diffuse themselves through the anxious 
soul of father ^Eneas. Forthwith he orders all the masts to 
be set up, and the yards to be stretched along the sails. At 
once they all tacked together, and together let go sometimes 
the left-hand sheets, sometimes the right : at once they turn 
and turn back the lofty end of the sail-yards : friendly gales 
waft the fleet forward. Palinurus, the master-pilot, led the 
closely-united squadron : towards him the rest were ordered 
to steer their course. 

And now the dewy night had almost reached the middle of 
her course ; the weaij^sailors, stretched along the hard benches 
under the oars, relaxed their limbs 50 in peaceful repose ; when 
the god of sleep, gliding down from the ethereal stars, parted 
the dusky air, and dispelled the shades ; to you, O Palinurus, 
directing his course, visiting you, though innocent, with dismal 
dreams : and the god took his seat on the lofty stern, in the 
similitude of Phorbas, 51 and poured forth these words from 

47 i. e. Palinurus. Cf. Eur. Electr. 1026, tKreive tto\)<Cjv fxiav V7rep. B. 

48 i. e. fish of large size. Nonius, v. " cetarii," remarks =" cete in mari 
majora sunt piscium genera.*' B. 

49 Balemon, the same with Melicerta and Portumnus. See note 59, 
Georgics, B. I. page 46. Tritons, &c., sea-deities. The name Tritons was 
generally applied to those only who were half men and half fishes. 

50 Cf. Homer's XvcnfieXrig vttvoq, Od. ¥. 342.> Orph. in Somn. 5. B. 

51 Phorbas, a son of Priam, killed in the Trojan war by Menelaus. 
The god Somnus, by assuming his shape, deceived Palinurus, and threw 
him into the sea. 



222 ^NEID. b. v. 843—871. 

his lips : Palinurus, son of Iasius, the seas themselves carry 
forward the fleet ; the gales blow fair and steady, the hour for 
rest is given. Recline your head, and steal your weary eyes 
from labour. Myself awhile will discharge your duty. To 
whom Palinurus, with difficulty lifting up his eyes, answers : 
Do you then bid me be a stranger to the aspect of the calm 
sea and its quiet waves ? Shall I confide in this extraordin- 
ary apparition ? Why should I trust iEneas to the mercy of 
the fallacious winds, 52 after having been so often deceived by 
the treacherous aspect of a serene sky ? These words he 
uttered, while fixed and clinging he did not part with the 
rudder, and held his eyes directed to the stars ; when, lo ! the 
god shakes over both his temples a branch drenched in the 
dew of Lethe, and impregnated with soporific Stygian influ- 
ence ; and, while he is struggling against sleep, dissolves his 
swimming eyes. Scarcely had unexpected slumber begun to 
relax his limbs, when the god, leaning on him, with part of 
the stern broke off, together with the helm, plunged him head- 
long into the limpid waves, often calling on his friends in 
vain : taking flight, raised .himself on his wings aloft into the 
thin air. Meanwhile, the fleet runs its watery course on the 
plain with equal security, and fearless is conducted by father 
Neptune's promises. And now wafted forward, it was even 
coming up to the rocks of the Sirens, 53 once of difficult ac- 
cess, and white with the bones 54 of many (at that time the 
hoarse rocks resounded far by the contiaual buffeting of the 
briny waves) ; when father .ZEneas perfl^ed the fluctuating 
galley to reel, having lost its pilot ; and he himself steered her 
through the darkened waves, deeply affected and wounded in 
his soul for the misfortune of his friend. Ah, Palinurus, 
[says he,] who has too much confided in the fair aspect of 
the skies and sea ! naked wilt thou lie on unknown sands ! 

62 On this general use of " austri," cf. ^En. i. 51, 536; ii. 304; v. 
396, &c. B. 

53 Sirens ; these were three fabiflous sisters who usually resided in a 
small island near Cape Pelorus in Sicily, and by their melodious voices 
decoyed mariners to their destruction on the fatal coast. Ulysses having, 
by an artifice, escaped their fascination, the disappointed Sirens threw 
themselves into the sea, and perished. 

54 Statins Silv. ii. 7, 65, " albos ossibus Italis Philippos." Senec. CSd 
3L4. Cf. Pric. on Apul. p. 436. B. 



ft vi. 1—21. jENEID. 223 



BOOK VI. 

In the Sixth Book, iEneas, on reaching the coast of Italy, visits, as he had 
been forewarned, the Sibyl of Cumae, who attends him in his descent into 
the infernal regions, and conducts him to his father Anchises, from whom 
he learns the fate that awaited him and his descendants the Romans. The 
book closes with the well-known beautiful panegyric on the younger Mar- 
cellus, who was prematurely cut off in the flower of his youth. 

Thus he speaks with tears, and gives his ship full sail, 1 
and at length he reaches the Euboean coast 2 of Cumae. They 
turn their prows out to the sea : then the anchor with its te 
nacious fluke moored the ships, and the bending sterns fringe 3 
the margin of the shore. The youthful crew spring forth 
with ardour on the Hesperian strand : some seek for the seeds 
of fire latent in the veins of flint ; some plunder the copses, 
the close retreat of wild beasts, and point out rivers newly 
discovered. But the pious iEneas repairs to the towers over 
which Apollo presides on high, and to the spacious cave, the 
cell of the Sibyl awful at a distance ; into whom the prophetic 
god of Delos breathes an enlarged mind and spirit, and dis- 
closes to her the future. Now they enter Diana's groves, 
and [Apollo's] golden roofs. Daedalus, 4 as is famed, flying 
the realms of Minos, adventuring to trust himself to the sky 
on nimble wings, sailed through an untried path to the cold 
regions of the north, and at length gently alighted on the 
tower of Chalcis. ILming landed first on those coasts, to thee, 
O Phoebus, he consWated his hoary wings, and reared a 
spacious temple. On the gates the death of Androgeos 5 [was 
represented] : then the Athenians, doomed, as an atonement 

1 Literally, " gives a loose rein." Cf. Ritterh. on Oppian, Hal. 229. B. 

2 Euboean coast, applied to Cumae in Italy, as having been built by a 
colony from Chalcis, a city of Eubcea, (Negropont,) an island in the 
Archipelago. 

8 i. e. with the " aplustria." See Anthon. B. 

4 Daedalus, a most ingenious artist of Athens, who, with his son Icarus, 
1 fled, by the help of wings, from Crete, to escape the resentment of Minos; 
i bnt Icarus fell into that part of the ^Egean Sea which bears his name. 

5 Androgeos, the son of Minos and Pasiphae, famous for his skill in 
■ wrestling, was put to death by iEgeus, king of Athens, who became 

iealous of him ; to revenge his death, Minos made war upon the Athe- 
nians, and at last grant them peace, on condition that they sent yearly 
■even youths and seven virgins, from Athens to Crete, to be devoured by 
tlie Minotaur, a fabulous monster, ha]f a man and half a bull. 



224 ^ENEID. b. vi. 22—52. 

(a piteous case !) to pay yearly the bodies of their children by 
sevens : there stands the urn whence the lots were drawn. In 
counterview answers the land of Crete raised above sea ; here 
Pasiphae's fierce passion for the bull is seen, and she [is intro- 
duced] by artifice humbled [to his embrace], with the Minotaur, 
that mingled birth, and two-formed offsprings, monuments of 
execrable lust. Here [are seen] the laboured work of the Laby- 
rinth, and the inextricable mazes. But Daedalus, pitying the 
violent love of queen [Ariadne], unravels [to Theseus] 6 the in- 
tricacies and windings of the structure, himself guiding his dark 
mazy steps by a thread. You too, O Icarus, should have borne a 
considerable part in that great work, had [thy father's] grie^ 
permitted. Twice he essayed to figure the disastrous story m 
gold ; twice the parent's hand misgave him. And now [the 
Trojans] would survey the whole work in order, were not 
Achates, who had been sent on, just at hand, and with him the 
priestess of Phoebus and Diana, Deiphobe, 7 Glaucus' daughter, 
who thus bespeaks the king : This hour requires not such 
amusements. At present it will be more suitable to sacrifice 
seven bullocks from a herd unyoked, and as many chosen ewes, 
with usual rites. The priestess having thus addressed iEneas, 
(nor are they backward to obey her sacred orders,) calls the 
Trojans into the lofty temple. I The huge side of an Euboean 
rock is cut out into a cave, whither a hundred broad avenues 
lead, a hundred doors ; whence rush forth as many voices, 
the responses of the Sibyl. They had come to the threshold, 8 
when thus the virgin exclaims : Now^(fe the time to consult 
your fate : the god, lo the god ! While thus before the gate 
she speaks, on a sudden her looks change, her colour comes 
and goes, her locks are dishevelled, her breast heaves, and her 
fierce heart swells with enthusiastic rage ; she appears in a 
larger form, her voice speaking her not a mortal, now that 
she is inspired with the nearer influence of the god. Do you 
delay, 9 Trojan iEneas, she says, do you delay with thy vows 

6 Theseus, king of Athens, and son of iEgeus, was, next to Hercules, 
the most celebrated of the heroes of antiquity. He slew the Minotaur, 
and escaped from the Labyrinth of Crete, by means of a clue of thread 
given to him by Ariadne, daughter of Minos. 

r Deiphobe, the Cumaean Sibyl, daughter of Glaucus, who conducted 
<Eneas into the infernal regions. 

8 i. e. to the entrance nearest Cumae. B. 

9 On this construction, see Markland on Stat. Silv. l. 2, 195 B. 



B> vi. 52—89. iRNEID. 225 

and prayers ? [Instantly begin] : for not till then shall the 
ample gates of this awe-stricken mansion unfold to the view. 
And having thus said, she ceased. Chill horror ran thrilling 
cold through the bones of the Trojans ; and their king poured 
forth these prayers from the bottom of his heart : Apollo, who 
hast ever pitied the troubles of Troy, whoguidedst the Trojan 
darts and the hand of Paris to the body of Achilles ; under 
thy conduct I have entered so many seas encompassing coun 
tries, and the Massylian nations far remote, and regions vast 
stretched in front by the Syrtes. Now at length we grasp of 
the coast of Italy that flies from us. Let it suffice that the 
fortune of Troy has persecuted us thus far. Now it is just 
that you too spare the Trojan race, ye gods and goddesses, all, 
to whom Ilium and the high renown of Dardania were ob- 
noxious. And thou too, most holy prophetess, skilled in fu- 
turity, grant (I ask no realms but what are destined to me 
by fate) that the Trojans, their wandering gods, and the per- 
secuted deities of Troy, may settle in Latium. Then will I 
appoint to Phoebus and Diana a temple of solid marble, and 
festal days, called by the name of Apollo. Thee too a spacious 
sanctuary awaits in our realms : for there, benignant one, I 
will deposit thy oracles, and the secret fates declared to my 
nation, and will consecrate chosen men. Only commit not thy 
verses to leaves, lest they fly about in disorder, the sport of 
the rapid winds : I beg you yourself will pronounce them. He 
ended his address. 

But the prophetess^ as yet not suffering the* influence of 

Phoebus, raves with wild outrage in the cave, struggling if 

i possible to disburden her soul of the mighty god : so much 

I the more he wearies her foaming lips, subduing her ferocious 

I heart, and, by bearing down her opposition, moulds her to his 

i will. And now the hundred spacious gates of the abode were 

opened of their own accord, and pour forth the responses of 

the prophetess into the open air : O thou who hast at length 

overpassed the vast perils of the ocean ! yet more afflicting 

trials by land await thee. The Trojans shall come to the 

realms of Lavinium, (dismiss that concern from thy breast,) 

but they shall wish too they had never come. Wars, horrid 

wars, I foresee, and Tiber foaming with a deluge of blood. 

Nor Simois nor Xanthus, nor Grecian camps, shall be wanting 

to you there. Another Achilles is prepared in Latium : he 

Q 



226 ^NEID. b. vi. 90—121. 

too the son of a goddess. Nor shall Juno, added to the Trojans 
[as their scourge], leave them wherever they are : while in 
your distress, which of the Italian states, which of its cities, 
shall you not humbly supplicate for aid ? Once more shall a 
consort, a hostess, once more shall a foreign match, be the 
cause of so great calamity to the Trojans. Yield not under 
your sufferings, but encounter them with greater boldness 
than your fortune shall permit. 10 What you least expect, 
your first means of deliverance shall be unfolded from a Gre- 
cian city. Thus from her holy cell the Cumsean Sibyl de- 
livers her mysterious oracles, and, wrapping up truth in 
obscurity, bellows in her cave: Such reins Apollo shakes 
over her as she rages, and deep in her breast he plies the 
goads. 

As soon as her fury ceased, and her raving tongue was silent, 
the hero -ZEneas begins : To me, O virgin, no shape of sufferings 
can arise new or unexpected ; I have anticipated all things, 
and acted them over beforehand in my mind. My sole re- 
quest is, (since here the gate of the infernal king is said to 
be, and the darksome lake [formed] from the overflowing 
Acheron,) that it may be my lot to come into the sight and 
presence of my dear father ; that you would show the way, 
and open to me the sacred portals. On these shoulders I 
rescued him, through flames and a thousand darts pursuing, 
and saved him from the midst of the enemy. He accompanied 
my path, attended me in all my voyages, and, though infirm, 
bore all the terrors both of the sea and sky, beyond the power 
and condition of old age. Nay more, he it was who earnestly 
requested and enjoined me to come to thee a suppliant, and 
visit thy temple. Benignant one, pity, I pray, the son and 
the sire ; for thou canst do all things ; nor hath Hecate in vain 
given thee charge of the Avernian groves. If Orpheus had 
power to recall his consort's ghost, relying on his Thracian 
harp and harmonious strings ; if Pollux 11 redeemed his brother 

10 I prefer "quam" with Wagner, notwithstanding Anthon's defence 
of "qua." B. 

11 Pollux and Castor were twin brothers : according to ancient my* 
thology, Pollux was the son of Jupiter, and so tenderly attached to his 
brother Castor, that he entreated Jupiter he might share his immortality, 
which being granted, they alternately lived and died every day. They 
were made constellations under the name of Gemini, which never appeal 
together, but when one rises the other sets. 



B. vi. 122—160. ^NEID. 227 

by alternate death, and goes and comes this way so often : [J 
hope I may also be allowed to go and return :] why need 1 
mention Theseus, or great Alcides ? I too derive my birth 
from Jove supreme. 

In such terms he prayed, and held the altar, when thus the 
prophetess began to speak : Offspring of the gods, thou Tro- 
jan son of Anchises, easy is the path that leads down to hell ; 
grim Pluto's gate stands open night and day : but to retrace 
one's steps, and escape to the upper regions, this is a work, 
this is a task. Some few, whom favouring Jove loved, or il- 
lustrious virtue advanced to heaven, the sons of the gods, have 
effected it. Woods cover all the intervening space, and Co- 
cytus gliding with his black winding flood surrounds it. But 
if your soul be possessed with so strong a passion, so ardent a 
desire, twice to swim the Stygian lake, twice to visit gloomy 
Tartarus, and you will needs fondly pursue the desperate en- 
terprise, learn what first is to be done. On a tree of deep 
shade there lies concealed a bough, with leaves and limber 
twigs of gold, pronounced sacred to infernal Juno : this the 
whole grove covers, and shades in dark valleys enclose. But 
to none is it given to enter the hidden recesses of the earth, 
till from the tree he pluck the bough with its golden locks. 
Fair Proserpine hath ordained this to be presented to her as 
her peculiar present. When the first is torn off, a second of 
gold soon succeeds ; and a twig shoots forth leaves of the 
same metal. Therefore search out for it on high with thine 
eyes, and when found, pluck it with the hand in a proper 
manner ; for, if the Fates invite you, itself will come away 
willing and easy ; otherwise you will not be able to master it 
by any strength, or to lop it off by the stubborn steel. Be- 
sides, the body of your friend lies breathless, (whereof you, 
alas ! are not aware,) and pollutes the whole fleet with death, 
while you are seeking counsel, and hang lingering at my gate. 
First convey him to his place of rest, and bury him in the 
grave. Bring black cattle : let these first be the sacrifices of 
expiation. So at length you shall have a view of the Stygian 
groves, realms inaccessible to the living. She said, and 
closing her lips, was silent. 

.iEneas, his eyes fixed on the ground with sorrowing looks, 
takes his way, leaving the cave, and muses the dark event in 
his mind ; whom faithful Achates accompanies, and steps on 

q 2 



228 ^ENEID. e. ti. 161—197. 

with equal concern. Many doubts they started between them 
in the variety of their conversation ; who was the lifeless 
friend designed by the prophetess, what corpse was to be in- 
terred. And as they came, they saw Misenus 12 on the dry 
beach, slain by an unworthy death ; Misenus, son of -ZEolus, 
whom none excelled in rousing warriors by the brazen trump, 
and kindling the rage of war by its blast. He had been the 
companion of great Hector, and about Hector he fought, dis- 
tinguished both for the clarion and spear. After victorious 
Achilles had bereaved Hector of life, the valiant hero asso- 
ciated with Dardanian .ZEneas, following no inferior chief. 
But at that time, while madly presumptuous he makes the 
seas resound with his hollow trump, and with bold notes chal- 
lenges the gods to a trial of skill, Triton, jealous, (if the story 
be worthy of credit,) having inveigled him between two rocks, 
had overwhelmed him in the foaming billows. Therefore all 
murmured their lamentations around him with loud noise, 
especially pious JEneas; then forthwith weeping they set 
about the Sibyl's orders, and are emulous to heap up the altar 
of the funeral pile with trees, and raise it towards heaven 
They repair to an ancient wood, the deep lairs of the savage 
kind : down drop the firs : the holm crashes, felled by the 
axes ; and the ashen logs and yielding oak are cleft by 
wedges ; down from the mountains they roll the huge wild 
ashes. -ZEneas, too, chief amidst these labours, animates his 
followers, and is equipped with like implements. 

Meanwhile he thus ruminates in his distressed breast, sur- 
veying the spacious wood, and thus prays aloud : O if that 
golden branch on the tree now present itself to our view amid 
this ample forest ; since, Misenus, all that the prophetess de- 
clared of thee, is true, alas ! too true. Scarcely had he spoken 
these words, when it chanced that two pigeons, in their airy 
flight, came directly into the hero's view, and alighted on the 
verdant ground. Then the mighty hero knows his mother's 
birds, and rejoicing prays : Oh ! be the guides of the way, if 
any way there is, and steer your course through the air into 
the groves, where the precious branch overshades the fertile 
soil. And thou, my goddess-mother, oh be not wanting to 
me in this my perplexity ! Thus having said, he paused, ob- 

12 Misenus, a son of iEolus, the trumpeter of Hector, after whose death 
s.e followed J^neas to Italy, and was drowned on the coast of Campania 



d. vi. 19&-232. iENEID. 229 

serving what indications they offer, whither they bend their 
way. They, feeding and flying by turns, advanced before 
only as far as the eyes of the followers could trace them with 
their ken. Then, having come to the mouth of noisome 13 
Avernus, they mount up swiftly, and, gliding through the 
clear air, both alight on the wished-for place, on that tree 
from whence the gleam of the gold, of different hue, shone 
through the boughs. As in the woods the mistletoe, which 
springs not from the tree from whence it grows, is wont to 
bloom with new leaves in the cold of winter, and to twine 
around the tapering trunk with its yellow offspring ; such was 
the appearance of the gold sprouting forth on the shady holm : 
in like manner the metallic leaf tinkled with the gentle gale. 
Forthwith ^Eneas grasps, and eagerly tears off the lingering 
branch, and bears it to the grotto of the prophetic Sibyl. 

Meanwhile the Trojans were no less assiduously employed 
in mourning Misenus on the shore, and in paying the last 
duties to his senseless 14 ashes. First they rear a vast pile 
anctuous with pines and split oak, whose sides they inter- 
weave with black boughs, and place in the front deadly 
cypresses, and deck it above with glittering arms. Some get 
ready warm water, and caldrons bubbling from the flames ; 
and wash and anoint his cold limbs. The groan is raised: 
they then lay the bewailed body on a couch, and throw over 
it the purple robes, his wonted apparel. Others bore up the 
cumbrous bier, a mournful office ; and with their faces turned 
away, after the manner of their ancestors, under it they held 
the torch. Amassed together, blaze offerings of incense, 
viands, whole goblets of oil poured [on the pile]. After the 
ashes had sunk down, and the flames relented, they drenched 
the relics and soaking embers in wine ; and Chorinaeus en- 
closed the collected bones in a brazen urn. Thrice too he 
made the circuit of the company with holy water, sprinkling 
them with the light spray, and a branch of the prolific olive ; 
and he purified them, and pronounced the last farewell. But 

13 Nonius, i. 46, quoting these verses, observes, " Arernus iccirco ap- 
pellatus est, quia est odor ejus avibus infestissimus." This is probably a 
mistaken etymology. For the expression, compare Georg. iv. 270, 
" grave olentia Centaurea." B. 

14 " Ingrato, gratiam non sentienti," is Servius's last and correct ex- 
planation. Cf. Copa, vs. 35, (in Anth. Lat. T. i. p. 74,) "Quid cineri 
ingrato servas bene olentia serta." B. 






230 JENEID. b. vi. 233—266 

pious iEneas erects a spacious tomb for the hero, with his 
arms upon it, and an oar and trumpet, beneath a lofty moun- 
tain, which now from him is called Misenus, and retains a 
name eternal through ages. 

This done, he speedily executes the Sibyl's injunctions. 
There was a cave profound and hideous with wide yawn- 
ing mouth, stony, fenced by a black lake, and the gloom of 
woods ; over which none of the flying kind were able to wing 
their way unhurt : such exhalations, issuing from its grim 
jaws, ascended to the vaulted skies : [for which reason the 
Greeks called the place by the name of Aornus.] 15 Here 
first the priestess places four bullocks with backs of swarthy 
hue, and pours 16 wine on their foreheads, and cropping the 
topmost hairs between the horns, lays them on the sacred 
flames as the first offerings, by voice invoking Hecate whose 
power extends both to heaven and hell. Others employ the 
knives, 17 and receive the tepid blood in bowls. -ZEneas him- 
self smites with his sword a ewe -lamb of sable fleece in honour 
of the mother of the Furies, and her great sister, and in 
honour of thee, Proserpina, a barren heifer. Then he sets 
about the nocturnal sacrifices to the Stygian king, and lays on 
the flames the solid carcasses of bulls, pouring fat oil on the 
broiling entrails. Lo now, at the early beams and rising of 
the sun, the ground beneath their feet began to rumble, the 
Wooded heights to quake, and dogs were seen to howl through 
the shade of the woods, at the approach of the goddess. 
Hence, far hence, O ye profane, exclaims the prophetess, and 
begone from all the grove : and do you, JEneas, boldly march 
forward, and snatch your sword from its sheath : now is the 
time for fortitude, now for firmness of resolution. This said, 
she raving plunged into the open cave. He, with intrepid 
steps, keeps close by his guide as she leads the way. 

Ye gods, to whom the empire of ghosts belong, and ye silent 
shades, and Chaos, and Phlegethon, places where silence 
reigns around in night ! permit me to utter the secrets I have 

15 This line is probably the work of a grammarian. B. 

16 Literally, " tilts the vessel," the verb properly meaning the action of 
bending the cup as the liquid is poured out. So Lucret. v. 1007, " Illi 
imprudentes ipsi sibi ssepe venenum Vergebant." Cf. Gronov. Obs. ii. 
7. B. 

17 i. e. cut the throats of the victims. B. 



B. vi. 267-298. JENEID. 231 

heard ; ma)'- I by your divine will disclose tilings buried hi 
deep earth and darkness. They moved along amid the gloom 
under the solitary night through the shade, 18 and through the 
desolate halls and empty realms of Pluto ; such as is a journey 
in woods beneath the unsteady moon, under a faint, glimmer - 
ing light, when Jupiter hath wrapped the heavens in shade, 
and sable night hath stripped objects of colour. 

Before the vestibule itself, and in the first jaws of hell, 
Grief and vengeful Cares have placed their couches, and pale 
Diseases dwell, and disconsolate Old Age, and Fear, and the 
evil counsellor Famine, and vile deformed Indigence, forms 
ghastly to the sight ! and Death, and Toil ; then Sleep, akin 
to Death, and criminal Joys of the mind ; and in the opposite 
threshold murderous War, and the iron bed-chambers of the 
Furies, and frantic Discord, having her viperous locks bound 
with bloody fillets. 

In the midst a gloomy elm displays its boughs and aged 
arms, which seat vain Dreams are commonly said to haunt, 
and under every leaf they dwell. Many monstrous savages, 
moreover, of various forms, stable in the gates, the Centaurs 
and double-formed Scyllas, and Briareus 19 with his hundred 
hands, and the enormous snake of Lerna 20 hissing dreadful, 
and Chimsera armed with flames ; Gorgons, Harpies, and the 
form of Geryon's three-bodied ghost. Here iEneas, discon- 
certed with sudden fear, grasps his sword, and presents the 
naked point to each approaching shade : and had not his skil- 
ful guide put him in mind that they were airy unbodied phan- 
toms, fluttering about under an empty form, he had rushed in, 
and with his sword struck at the ghosts in vain. 

Hence is a path, which leads to the floods of Tartarean 
Acheron : here a gulf turbid and impure boils up with mire 
and vast whirlpools, and disgorges all its sand into Cocytus. 

18 Observe the accumulation of epithets, all denoting the excessive 
darkness ; " obscuri " — " sola nocte " — " per umbram." B. 

19 Briareus, a famous giant, son of Ccelus and Terra. The poets feigned 
he had one hundred arms and fifty heads, and was thrown under Mount 
iEtna for having assisted the giants against the gods. 

20 Lerna, a lake of Argolis in Greece, where Hercules killed the 
famous hydra. Chimsera, a fabulous monster, represented with three 
heads, that of a lion, of a goat, and of a dragon. Geryon, a celebrated 
monster, whom Hercules slew. He was represented by the poets as 
having three bodies and three heads. 



I 



232 ^NEID. b, vi. 299-337 

A grim ferryman guards these floods and rivers, Charon, 21 Oj I 
frightful slovenliness ; on whose chin a load of grey hair neg- j 
leeted lies ; his eyes are flame : his vestments hang from his 
shoulders by a knot, with filth overgrown. Himself thrusts 
on the barge with a pole, and tends the sails, and wafts over 
the bodies in his iron-coloured boat, now in years : but the 
god is of fresh and green old age. Hither the whole tribe in 
swarms came pouring to the banks, matrons and men, the 
souls of magnanimous heroes who had gone through life, boys 
and unmarried maids, and young men who had been stretched 
on the funeral pile before the eyes of their parents ; as numer- 
ous as withered leaves fall in the woods with the first cold of 
autumn, or as numerous as birds flock to land from deep ocean, 
when the chilling year 22 drives them beyond sea, and sends 
them to sunny climes. They stood praying to cross the flood 
the first, and were stretching forth their hands with fond de- 
sire to gain the further bank : but the sullen boatman admits 
sometimes these, sometimes those: whilst others, to a great 
distance removed, he debars from the banks. 

-ZEneas (for he was amazed and moved with the tumult) 
thus speaks : O virgin, say what means that flocking to the 
river ? what do the ghosts desire ? or by what distinction must 
these recede from the banks, those sweep with oars the livid 
flood ? To him the aged priestess thus briefly replied : Son 
of Anchises, undoubted offspring of the gods, you see the deep 
pools of Cocytus, and the Stygian lake, by whose divinity the 
gods dread to swear and violate [their oath]. All that crowd, 
which you see, consists of naked and unburied persons : that 
ferryman is Charon : these, whom the stream carries, are in- 
terred ; for it is not permitted to transport them over the 
horrid banks, and hoarse waves, before their bones are quietly 
lodged in a final abode. They wander a hundred years, and 
flutter about these shores : then at length admitted, they visit 
the wished-for lakes. 

The offspring of Anchises paused and repressed his steps, 
deeply musing, and pitying from his soul their unkind lot. 
There he espies Leucaspis, 23 and Orontes, the commander 0/ 

21 Charon, a god of hell, son of Erebus and Nox, who conducted the 
souls of the dead in a boat over the river Styx to the infernal regions. 

22 i. e. " season.'* See Broukh. on Tibull. i. 1, 17. B. 

23 Leucaspis, one of JSneas' companions, lost during a storm in the 
Tyrrhene Sea. 



S, vi, 338—370, ^ENEID. 233 

the Lycian fleet, mournful, and bereaved of the honours of 
the dead : whom, as they sailed from Troy, over the stormy 
seas, the south wind sunk together, whelming both ship and 
crew in the waves. Lo ! the pilot Palinurus slowly advanced, 
who lately in his Libyan voyage, while he was observing the 
stars, had fallen from the stern, plunged in the midst of the 
waves. When with difficulty, by reason of the thick shade, 
-ZEneas knew him in this mournful mood, he thus first accosts 
him: What god, O Palinurus, snatched you from us, and 
overwhelmed you in the middle of the ocean ? Come tell me. 
For Apollo, whom I never before found false, in this one re- 
sponse deceived my mind, declaring that you should be safe 
on the sea, and arrive at the Ausonian coasts: Is this the 
amount of his plighted faith ? 

But he [answers] : Neither the oracle of Phoebus beguiled 
you, prince of the line of Anchises, nor a god plunged me in 
the sea ; for, falling headlong, I drew along with me the helm, 
which I chanced with great violence to tear away, as I clung 
to it, and steered our course, being appointed pilot. By the 
rough seas I swear, that I was not so seriously apprehensive 
for myself, as that thy ship, despoiled of her rudder, dispos- 
sessed of her pilot, might sink while such high billows were 
rising. The south wind drove me violently on the water over 
the spacious sea, three wintry nights : on the fourth day I de- 
scried Italy from the high ridge of a wave [whereon I was] 
raised aloft. I was swimming gradually towards land, and should- 
have been out of danger, had not the cruel people fallen upon 
me with the sword, (encumbered with my wet garment, and 
grasping with crooked hands the rugged tops of a mountain,) 
and ignorantly taking me for a rich prey. Now the waves 
possess me, 24 and the winds toss me about the shore. But by 
the pleasant light of heaven, and by the vital air, by him who 
gave thee birth, by the hope of rising lulus, I thee implore, 
invincible one, release me from these woes : either throw on 
me some earth, (for thou canst do so,) and seek out the Yeline 
port ; or, if there be any means, if thy goddess mother point 
out any, (for thou dost not, I presume, without the will of the 
gods, attempt to cross such mighty rivers and the Stygian 
lake,) lend your hand to an unhappy wretch, and bear me 

24 i. e. " my body." So avrovg is used by Horn II. A. 4. Cf. below, 
vi. 507. B. 






23^ ^ENEID. b. vi. 371—402 

with you over the waves, that in death at least I may rest in 
peaceful seats. 

Thus he spoke, when thus the prophetess began : Whence, 
O Palinurus, rises in thee this so impious desire ? Shall you 
unburied behold the Stygian floods, and the grim river of the 
Furies, or reach the bank against the command [of heaven] ? 
Cease to hope that the decrees of the gods are to be altered by 
prayers ; but mindful take these predictions as the solace of 
your hard fate. For the neighbouring people, 25 compelled by 
portentous plagues from heaven, shall through their several 
cities far and wide offer atonement to thy ashes, erect a tomb, 
and stated anniversary offerings on that tomb present ; and 
the place shall for ever retain the name of Palinurus. By 
these words his cares were removed, and grief was for a time 
banished from his disconsolate heart: he rejoices in the land 
that is to bear his name. 

They therefore accomplish their journey begun, and ap- 
proach the river : whom when the boatman soon from the 
Stygian wave beheld advancing through the silent grove, and 
stepping forward to the bank, thus he first accosts them in 
words, and chides them unprovoked: Whoever thou mayest 
be, who art now advancing armed to our rivers, say quick for 
what end thou comest ; and from that very spot repress thy 
step. This is the region of Ghosts, of Sleep, and drowsy 
Night : to waft over the bodies of the living in my Stygian 
boat is not permitted. Nor indeed was it joy to me that I re- 
ceived Alcides on the lake when he came, or Theseus and Pi- 
rithous, 26 though they were the offspring of the gods, and in- 
vincible in might. One with his hand put the keeper of Tar- 
tarus in chains, and dragged him trembling from the throne 
of our king himself; the others attempted to carry off our 
queen from Pluto's bed-chamber. 

In answer to which, the Amphrysian prophetess spoke: 
No such plots are here, be not disturbed, nor do these weapons 
bring violence : the huge porter may bay in his den for ever, 
terrifying the incorporeal shades : chaste Proserpine may re- 

25 This befell the Lucanians. See Servius. B. 

26 Pirithous, a son of Ixion, and king of the Lapithae, whose friendship 
with Theseus, king of Athens, was proverbial. According to the poets, 
the two friends descended into the infernal regions to carry away Proser- 
pine, but Pluto, who was apprized of their intention, bound Pirithous tc 
It is father's wheel, and Theseus to a huge stone. 



E . YI . 403—436. ^NEID. 235 

main in her uncle's palace. Trojan .TEneas, illustrious for piety 
and arms, descends to the deep shades of Erebus to his sire. 
If the image of such piety makes no impression on you, own 
a regard at least to this branch (she shows the branch that was 
concealed under her robe). Then his heart from swelling rage 
is stilled : nor passed more words than these. He with wonder 
gazing on the hallowed present of the fatal branch, beheld 
after a long season, turns towards them his lead-coloured 
barge, and approaches the bank. Thence he dislodges the 
other souls that* sat on the long benches, and clears the 
hatches ; at the same time, receives into the hold the mighty 
-ZEneas. The boat of sewn hide 27 groaned under the weight, 
and, being leaky, took in much water from the lake. At 
length he lands the hero and the prophetess safe on the other 
side of the river, on the foul slimy strand and sea-green weed. 
Huge Cerberus makes these realms to resound with barking 
from his triple jaws, stretched at his enormous length in a den 
that fronts the gate. To whom the prophetess, seeing his 
neck now bristle with horrid snakes, flings a soporific cake of 
honey and medicated grain. He, in the mad rage of hunger, 
opening his three mouths, snatches the offered morsel, and, 
spread on the ground, relaxes his monstrous limbs, and is ex- 
tended at vast length over all the cave. -ZEneas, now that the 
keeper [of hell] is buried [in sleep], seizes the passage, and 
swift overpasses the bank of that flood whence there is no 
return. ~— 

Forthwith are heard voices, loud wailings, and weeping 
ghosts of infants, in the first opening of the gate ; whom, be- 
reaved of sweet life out of the course of nature, and snatched 
from the breast, a black day cut off, and buried in an un- 
timely grave. 

Next to those, are such as had been condemned to death by 
false accusations. Nor yet were those seats assigned them 
without a trial, without a judge. Minos, 28 as inquisitor, 
shakes the urn: he convokes the council of the silent, and 
examines their lives and crimes. 

The next places in order those mournful ones possess, 

37 i. e. formed of hides sewn across wicker ribs. See Anthon. B. 

28 Minos, a celebrated king and lawgiver of Crete, son of Jupiter and 
Europa. He was rewarded for his equity, after death, with the office of 
judge in the infernal regions, with iEacus and Rhadamanthus. 



236 jENEID. b. vi. 437—460 

who, though free from crime, procured death to themselves 
with their own hands, and, sick of the light, threw away their 
lives. How gladly would they now endure poverty and pain- 
ful toils in the upper regions ! Fate opposes, and the hate- 
ful lake imprisons them with its dreary waves, and Styx, nine 
times rolling between, confines them. 

Not far from this part, extended on every side, are shown 
the fields of mourning : so they call them by name. Here by- 
paths remote conceal, and myrtle-groves cover those around, 
whom unrelenting love, with his cruel venom, consumed 
away. Their cares leave them not in death itself. In these 
places he sees Phagdra 29 and Procris, 30 and disconsolate Eri- 
phyle pointing to the wounds she had received from her cruel 
son; Evadne 31 also, and Pasiphae: these Laodamia accom- 
panies, and Cseneus, once a youth, now a woman, and again 
by fate transformed into his pristine shape. Amongst whom 
Phoenician Dido, fresh from her wound, was wandering in a 
spacious wood ; whom as soon as the Trojan hero approached, 
and discovered faintly through the shades, (in like manner as 
one sees, or thinks he sees, the moon rising through the clouds 
in the beginning of her monthly course,) he dropped tears, 
and addressed her in love's sweet accents : Hapless Dido, was 
it then a true report I had of your being dead, and that you 
had finished your own destiny by the sword ? Was I, alas ! 
the cause of your death ? I swear by the stars, by the powers 
above, and by whatever faith may be under the deep earth, 
that against my will, queen, I departed from thy coast. 

29 Phaedra, a daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, who married Theseus ; 
her criminal passion for Hippolytus, and the tragical end of that young 
prince, by his chariot being overturned and dragged among rocks, so 
stung her with remorse, that she hanged herself. 

30 Procris, a daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens/ and wife of 
Cephalus. Eriphyle, a sister of Adrastus, king of Argos, and the wife of 
Amphiaraus: she was murdered by her son Alcmaeon, for having dis- 
covered where Amphiaraus was concealed, that he might not accompany 
the Argives in their expedition against Thebes. 

31 Evadne, the wife of Capaneus, one of the seven chiefs who went 
against Thebes ; she threw herself on his funeral pile, and perished in 
the flames. Laodamia, a daughter of Acastus, and the wife of Protesi- 
laus, whose departure for the Trojan war, and subsequent fall by the 
hand of Hector, caused her death from excessive grief. Caeneus, a Thes- 
salian woman, feigned by the poets to have had the power of changing 
her sex. 



dg Vi. 461—489. JENEID. 237 

But the mandates of the gods, which now compel me to travel 
through these shades, through noisome dreary regions and 
deep night, drove me from you by their authority ; nor could 
I believe that I should bring upon you such deep anguish by 
my departure. Stay your steps, and withdraw not thyself 
from my sight. Whom dost thou fly ? This is the last time 
fate allows me to address you. With these words iEneas 
thought to soothe her soul inflamed, and eyeing him with 
stern regard, and provoked his tears to flow. She, turned 
away, kept her eyes fixed on the ground ; nor alters her looks 
more, in consequence of the conversation he had begun, than 
if she were fixed immovable like a stubborn flint or rock of 
Parian marble. At length, she abruptly retired, and in de- 
testation fled into a shady grove, where Sichaeus 32 her first 
lord answers her with [amorous] cares, and returns her love 
for love. .iEneas, nevertheless, in commotion for her disas- 
trous fate, with weeping eyes, pursues her far, and pities her 
as she goes. 

Hence he holds on his destined way ; and now they had 
reached the last fields, which by themselves apart renowned 
warriors frequent. Here Tydeus 33 appears to him, here Par- 
thenopoeus illustrious in arms, and the ghost of pale Adrastus. 
Here [appear] those Trojans who had died in the field of 
battle, much lamented in the upper world : whom when he 
beheld all together in a numerous body, he inwardly groaned : 
Glaucus, 34 Medon, Thersilochus, the three sons of Antenor, 
and Polybastes devoted to Ceres, and Idaeus still handling his 
chariot, still his armour. The ghosts in crowds around him 
stand on the right and left: nor are they satisfied with 
seeing him once; they wish to detain him long, to come 
into close conference with him, and learn the reasons of his 

32 Sicheeus, the husband of Dido, and the priest of Hercules, whom 
Pygmalion, his brother-in-law, murdered, to obtain his riches. 

33 Tydeus, the son of CEneus, king of Calydon, was one of the seven 
chiefs of the army of Adrastus, king of Argos, in the Theban war, where 
he behaved with great courage, but was slain by Melanippus. He was 
father to Diomedes, who was therefore called Tydides. Parthenopoeus, 
a son of Meleager and Atalanta, was also one of the seven chiefs who 
accompanied Adrastus in his expedition against Thebes. 

34 Glaucus, a son of Hippo] ochus, and grandson of Bellerophon. Ho 
assisted Priam in the Trojan war, and was slain by Ajax. Thersilochus, 
c sou of Antenor, and leader of the Paeonians, was slain by \chilles. 



238 -ENELD. b. vi. 490—523. 

visit. But as soon as the Grecian chiefs and Agamemnon's 35 
battalions saw the hero, and his arms gleaming through the 
shades, they quaked with dire dismay : some turned their 
backs, as when they fled once to their ships ; some raise their 
slender voices; the scream begun dies in their gasping 
throats. 36 

And here he espies Deiphobus, the son of Priam, mangled 
in every limb, his face, his face and both his hands cruelly 
torn, his temples bereft of the ears cropped off, and his nostrils 
slit with a hideously deformed wound. Thus he hardly knew 
him quaking for agitation, and seeking to hide the marks of 
his dreadful punishment ; and he firsts accosts him with well- 
known accents : Deiphobus, great in arms, sprung from Teu- 
cer's noble blood, who could choose to inflict such cruelties ? 
Or who was allowed to exercise such power over you ? To 
me, in that last night, a report was brought that you, tired 
with the vast slaughter of the Greeks, had fallen at last on a 
heap of mingled carcasses. Then, with my own hands, I raised 
to you an empty tomb on the Rhoetean shore, and thrice with 
loud voice I invoked your manes. Your name and arms pos- 
sess the place. Your body, my friend, I could not find, or, 
at my departure, deposit in thy native land. And upon this 
the son of Priam said : Nothing, my friend, has been omitted 
by you ; you have discharged every duty to Deiphobus, and 
to the shadow of a corpse. But my own fate, and the cursed 
wickedness of Helen, plunged me in these woes : she hath left 
me these monuments [of her love]. For how we passed that 
last night amidst ill-grounded joys you know, and must re- 
member but too well, when the fatal horse came bounding 
over our lofty walls, and pregnant brought armed infantry in 
its womb. She, pretending a dance, led her train of Phrygian 
matrons yelling around the orgies : herself in the midst held a 
large flaming torch, and called to the Greeks from the lofty 
tower. I, being at that time oppressed with care, and over- 
powered with sleep, was lodged in my unfortunate bed-cham- 
ber : rest, balmy, profound, and the perfect image of a calm, 
peaceful death, pressed me as I lay. Meanwhile my incom- 
parable spouse removes all arms from my palace, and had 

35 Agamemnon was king of Mycenae and Argos. He was chosen com- 
mander-in-chief of the Greeks in the Trojan war. 

38 Literally, " fails them as they open their mouths to utter it." B. 



b. vi. 521—555. ^ENEID. 239 

withdrawn my trusty sword from my Lead : she calls Mene- 
laus 37 into the palace, and throws open the gates ; hoping, nc 
doubt, that would be a mighty favour to her amorous husband, 
and that thus the infamy of her former wicked deeds might 
be extinguished. In short, they burst into my chamber : that 
traitor of the race of iEolus, 38 the promoter of villany, is 
joined in company with them. Ye gods, requite these cruel- 
ties to the Greeks, if I supplicate vengeance with pious lips ! 
But come now, in thy turn, say what adventure hath brought 
thee hither alive. Dost thou come driven by the casualties 
of the main, or by the direction of the gods ? or what fortune 
compels thee to visit these dreary mansions, troubled regions, 
where the sun never shines ? 

In this conversation the sun in his rosy chariot had now 
passed the meridian in his ethereal course ; and they perhaps 
would in this manner have passed the whole time assigned 
them; but the Sibyl, his companion, put him in mind, and 
thus briefly spoke : iEneas, the night comes on apace, while 
we waste the hours in lamentations. This is the place where 
the path divides itself in two : the right is what leads beneath 
great Pluto's walls ; by this our way to Elysium lies : but the 
left carries on the punishments of the wicked, and conveys to 
cursed Tartarus. On the other hand, Deiphobus [said] : Be 
not incensed, great priestess ; I shall be gone ; I will fill up 
the number [of the ghosts] and be rendered back to dark- 
ness. Go, go, thou glory of our nation ; mayest thou find 
fates more kind ! This only he spoke, and at the word turned 
his steps. 

.ZEneas on a sudden looks back, and under a rock on the 
left sees vast prisons enclosed with a triple wall, which Tar- 
tarean Phlegethon's rapid flood environs with torrents of 
flame, and whirls roaring rocks along. Fronting is a huge 
gate, with columns of solid adamant, that no strength of men, 
nor the gods themselves, can with steel demolish. An iron 
tower rises aloft ; and there wakeful Tisiphone, with her 

37 Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon, and the husband of Helen, 
the daughter of Tyndarus, with whom he received the crown of Sparta. 
This, however, he had enjoyed only a short time, when Helen was car- 
ried away by Paris, the son of Priam, which laid the foundation of the 
Trojan war, where Menelaus behaved with great spirit and courage. 

38 Race of ^Eolus; Ulysses is here meant, Sisyphus, the on of iEolus, 
Deing, according to some his father. 



240 2ENEID. n. vi. 556—586. 

bloody robe tucked up around her, sits to watch the vestibule 
both night and day. Hence groans are heard ; the cruel 
lashes resound^ the grating too of iron, and clank of drag- 
ging chains^__JZEneas stopped short, and starting, listened to 
the din. ! What scenes of guilt are these ? O virgin, say ; or 
with what pains are they chastised? what hideous yelling 
[ascends] to the skies ! Then thus the prophetess began : 
Renowned leader of the Troj ans, no holy person is allowed to 
tread the accursed threshold : but Hecate, when she set me 
over the groves of Avernus, herself taught me the punish- 
ments appointed by the gods, and led me through every part. 
Cretan Rhadamanthus 39 possesses these most ruthless realms; 
examines and punishes frauds ; and forces every one to con- 
fess what crimes committed in the upper world he had left 
[unatoned] till the late hour of death, hugging himself in 
secret crime of no avail. Forthwith avenging Tisiphone, 
armed with her whip, scourges the guilty with cruel insult, 
and in her left hand shaking over them her grim snakes, calls 
the fierce troops of her sister Furies. 

Then at length the accursed gates, grating on their dread- 
ful-sounding hinges, are thrown open. See you what kind 
of watch sits in the entry ? what figure guards the gate ? An 
overgrown Hydra, 40 more fell [than any Fury], with fifty 
black gaping mouths, has her seat within. Then Tartarus 
itself sinks deep down, and extends towards the shades twice 
as far as is the prospect upwards to the ethereal throne of 
heaven. Here Earth's ancient progeny, the Titanian youth, 
hurled down with thunderbolts, welter in the profound abyss. 
Here too I saw the two sons of Aloeus, 41 gigantic bodies, who 
attempted with their might to overturn the spacious heavens, 
and thrust down Jove from his exalted kingdom. Salmoneus 42 

39 Rhadamanthus, a son of Jupiter and Europa, who reigned over the 
Cyclades and many of the Greek cities in Asia, and for his justice and 
equity was made one of the judges of hell. 

40 Hydra, a fabulous monster of the serpent tribe : that which infested 
the neighbourhood of the lake Lerna, in Peloponnesus, was killed by 
Hercules. 

41 Two sons of Aloeus, the giants Otus and Ephialtes, who made war 
against the gods, and were killed by Apollo and Diana. 

42 Salmoneus, a king of Elis, who for his impiety in imitating the thun- 
der of Jupiter, was feigned to have been struck by a thunderbolt, and 
placed in the infernal regions, near his brother Sisyphus. 






K. vi. 586— 618. ^XEID. 241 

likewise I beheld suffering severe punishment, for having imi- 
tated Jove's flaming bolts, and the sounds of heaven. He, 
drawn in his chariot by four horses, and brandishing a torch, 
rode triumphant among the nations of Greece, and in the 
midst of the city Elis, and claimed to himself the honour of 
the gods : infatuate ! who, w r ith brazen car, and the prancing 
of his horn-hoofed steeds, would needs counterfeit the storms 
and inimitable thunder. But the almighty Sire amidst the 
thick clouds threw a bolt, (not firebrands he, nor smoky light 
from torches,) and hurled him down headlong in a vast whirl- 
wind. Here too you might have seen Tityus, 43 the foster- 
child of all-bearing Earth : whose body is extended over nine 
whole acres ; and a huge vulture, with her hooked beak, peck- 
ing at his immortal liver, and his bowels, the fruitful source 
of punishment, both searches them for her banquet, and dwells 
in the deep recesses of his breast ; nor is any respite given to 
his fibres still springing up afresh. Why should I mention 
the Lapithse, Ixion, and Pirithous, over w r hom hangs a black 
flinty rock, every moment threatening to tumble down, and 
seeming to be actually falling ? Golden pillars [supporting] 
lofty genial couches shine, and full in their view are banquets 
furnished out with regal magnificence ; the chief of the Furies 
sits by them, and debars them from touching the provisions 
•with their hands ; and starts up, lifting her torch on high, 
and thunders over them with her voice. 'Here are those 44 
who, while life remained, had been at enmity w^ith their bro- 
thers, had beaten a parent, or wrought deceit against a client ; 
or who alone brooded over their acquired wealth, nor assigned 
a portion to their own ; which class is the most numerous : 
those too who were slain for adultery, who joined in impious 
wars, and did not scruple to violate the faith they had plighted 
to their masters : shut up, they aw^ait their punishment. But 
what kind of punishment seek not to be informed, in what 
shape [of misery], or in what state they are involved. Some 
roll a huge stone, and hang fast bound to the spokes of wheels. 
There sits, and to eternity shall sit, the unhappy Theseus : 

43 Tityus, a celebrated giant, son of Terra, or, according to others, of 
Jupiter and Elara. 

44 Cf. Aristoph. Ran. 146, and mv notes on ^sch. Eum. p. 188, n. 2, 
od. Bohn. B. 



242 JENEID. b. vi. 619—650, 

and Phlegyas 45 most wretched is a monitor to all, and with 
loud voice proclaims through the shades : " Warned [by ex- 
ample], learn righteousness, and not to contemn the gods." 
One sold his country for gold, and imposed on it a domineer- 
ing tyrant ; made and unmade laws for money. Another in- 
vaded his daughter's bed, and an unlawful wedlock: all of 
them dared some heinous crime, and accomplished what they 
dared. Had I a hundred tongues, and a hundred mouths, a 
voice of iron, I could not comprehend all the species of their 
crimes, nor enumerate the names of all their punishments. 

When the aged priestess of Phoebus had uttered these words, 
she adds, But come now, set forward, and finish the task yon 
have undertaken ; let us haste on : I see the walls [of Pluto], 
wrought in the forges of the Cyclops, and the gates with their 
arch full in our view, where our instructions enjoin us to 
deposit this our offering. She said; and with equal pace 
advancing through the gloomy path, they speedily traverse 
the intermediate space, and approach the gates. JEneas 
springs forward to the entry, sprinkles his body with fresh 
water, and fixes the bough in the fronting portal. 

Having finished these rites, and performed the offering to 
the goddess, they came at length to the regions of joy, delight- 
ful green retreats, and blessed abodes in groves, where happi- 
ness abounds. A freer 46 and purer sky here clothes the fields 
with sheeny light : they know their own sun, their own stars. 
Some exercise their limbs on the grassy green, in sports con- 
t end, and wrestle on the tawny sand : some strike the ground 
with their feet in the dance, and sing hymns. [Orpheus,] 
too, the Thracian priest, in his long robe, replies 47 in melodi- 
ous numbers to the seven distinguished notes ; and now strikes 
the same with his fingers, now with his ivory quill. Here 
may be seen Teucer's ancient race, a most illustrious line, 
magnanimous heroes, born in happier times, Ilus, 48 Assaracus, 

45 Phlegyas, a son of Mars, king of the Lapithse in Thessaly, who 
plundered and burnt the temple of Apollo at Delphi; for this impiety he 
was killed by Apollo, who placed him in hell, where a huge stone was 
suspended over his head, which kept him in continual alarms. 

46 Compare Anthon's note. B. 

47 See Anthon. B. 

48 Ilus, the fourth king of Troy, was son of Tros and Callirhoe, ami 
father of Themis and Laomedon. 



3. vi. 650-686. ^ENEID. 243 

and Dardanus, the founder of Troy. From afar, [iEneas] 
views with wonder the arms and empty chariots of the chiefs. 
Their spears stand fixed in the ground, and up and down 
their horses feed at large through the plain. The same fond- 
ness they had when alive for chariots and arms, the same con- 
cern for training up shining steeds, follow them when deposited 
beneath the earth. 

Lo ! he beholds others on the right and left feasting upon 
the grass, and singing the joyful paean to Apollo in concert, 
amidst a fragrant grove of laurel ; whence from on high the 
river Eridanus rolls in copious streams through the wood. 
Here is a band of those who sustained wounds in fighting for 
their country ; priests who preserved themselves pure and 
holy, while life remained ; pious poets, who sung in strains 
worthy of Apollo ; those who improved life by the invention 
of arts, and who by their worthy deeds made others remember 
I them : all these have their temples crowned with a snow- 
i white fillet. Whom, gathered around, the Sibyl thus ad- 
i dressed, Musaeus 49 chiefly ; for a numerous crowd had him in 
their centre, and looked up with reverence to him raised above 
them by the height of his shoulders : Say, blest souls, and 
thou, best of poets, what region, what place contains Anchises ? 
on his account we have come, and crossed the great rivers of 
' hell. And thus the hero briefly returned her an answer : 
None of us have a fixed abode ; in shady groves we dwell, or 
lie on couches all along the banks, and on meadows fresh with 
I rivulets : but do you, if so your heart's inclination leads, over- 
pass this eminence, and I will set you in the easy path. He 
said, and advanced his steps on before, and shows them from 
I a rising ground the shining plains ; then they descend from 
tthe summit of the mountain. But father Anchises, deep in a 
! verdant dale, was surveying with studious cares the souls 
tthere enclosed, who were to revisit the light above ; and hap- 
pened to be reviewing the whole number of his race, his dear 
^descendants, their fates and fortunes, their manners and 
^.achievements As soon as he beheld ^Eneas advancing towards 
him across the meads, he joyfully stretched out both his hands, 
and tears poured down his cheeks, and these words dropped 

49 Musaeus, an ancient Greek poet, supposed to have been the son oi 
di^iple of Linus or Orpheus, and to have lived about 1410 years b. c. 



244 J2NEID, b. vi. 687—722. 

from his mouth : Are you come at length, and has that piety, 
experienced by your sire, surmounted the arduous journey ? 
Am I permitted, my son, to see thy face, to hear and return 
the well-known accents ? So indeed I concluded in my mind, 
and reckoned it would happen, computing the time : nor have 
my anxious hopes deceived me. Over what lands, O son, 
and over what immense seas, have you, I hear, been tossed ! 
with what dangers harassed ! how I dreaded lest you had 
sustained harm from Libya's realms ! But he [said], Your 
ghost, your sorrowing ghost, my sire, oftentimes appearing, 
compelled me to set forward to these thresholds. My fleet 
rides in the Tyrrhene Sea. Permit me, father, to join my 
right hand [with thine] ; and withdraw not thyself from my 
embrace. So saying, he at the same time bedewed his cheeks 
with a flood of tears. There thrice he attempted to throw his 
arms around his neck ; thrice the phantom, grasped in vain, 
escaped his hold, like the fleet gales, or resembling most a 
fugitive dream. 

Meanwhile ^ZEneas sees in the retired vale, a grove situate 
by itself, shrubs rustling in the woods, and the river Lethe 
which glides by those peaceful dwellings. Around this un- 
numbered tribes and nations of ghosts were fluttering ; as in 
meadows on a serene summer's day, when the bees sit on the 
various blossoms, and swarm around the snow-white lilies, all 
the plain buzzes with their humming noise. ^Eneas, con- 
founded, shudders at the unexpected sight, and asks the causes, 
what are those rivers in the distance, or what ghosts have in 
such crowds filled the banks ? Then father Anchises [said], 
Those souls, for whom other bodies are destined by fate, at 
the streams of Lethe's flood quaff care-expelling draughts and 
lasting oblivion. Long indeed have I wished to give you a 
detail of these, and to point them out before you, and enu- 
merate this my future race, that you may rejoice the more 
with me in the discovery of Italy. O father, is it to be 
imagined that any souls of an exalted nature will go hence to 
the world above, and enter again into inactive bodies ? What 
direful love of the light possesses the miserable beings ? I, 
indeed, replies Anchises, will inform you, my son, nor hold 
you longer in suspense : and thus he unfolds each particular 
in order. 



b. vi. 723—756. JENEID. 245 

In the first place, the spirit within nourishes the heavens, 

the earth, and watery plains, 50 the moon's enlightened orb, and 

^ the Titanian stars ; 51 and the mind, diffused through all the 

J members, actuates the whole frame, and mingles with the vast 

s body [of the universe]. Thence the race of men and beasts, 

,i the vital principles of the flying kind, and the monsters which 

' the ocean breeds under its smooth plain. These principles 

i have the active force of fire, and are of a heavenly original, 

i so far as they are not clogged by noxious bodies, blunted by 

. earth-born limbs and dying members. Hence they fear and 

1 desire, grieve and rejoice ; and, shut up in darkness and a 

\ gloomy prison, lose sight of their native skies. 52 Even when 

with the last beams of light their life is gone, yet not every 

fc ill, nor all corporeal stains, are quite removed from the un- 

6 happy beings ; and it is absolutely necessary that many im- 

, perfections which have long been joined to the soul, should be 

J in marvellous ways increased and riveted therein. Therefore 

are they afflicted with punishments, and pay the penalties of 

s their former ills. Some, hung on high, are spread out to the 

s empty winds ; in others the guilt not done away is washed 

out in a vast watery abyss, or burned away in fire. We each 

endure his own manes, 53 thence are we conveyed along the 

spacious Elysium, and we, the happy few, possess the fields 

of bliss ; till length of time, after the fixed period is elapsed, 

hath done away the inherent stain, and hath left the pure 

celestial reason, and the fiery energy of the simple spirit. 

All these, after they have rolled away a thousand years, are 

; summoned forth by the god in a great body to the river 

Lethe ; to the intent that, losing memory [of the past], they 

may revisit the vaulted realms above, and again become will- 

i ing to return into bodies. Anchises thus spoke, and' leads his 

: son, together with the Sibyl, into the midst of the assembly 

k and noisy throng ; thence chooses a rising ground, whence he 

k may survey them all as they stand opposite to him in a long 

row, and discern their looks as they approach. 

80 i. e. "mana." Servius. Cf. Ovid. Met. i. 315, "campus aqua- 
rum." B. 

51 The sun is particularly meant, " Sol, quern et supra unum fuisse de 
Titanibus diximus." Servius. 

52 i. e. of their proper nature. Cf. Plato Phaedon. § 24 and 25. B. 
M See Servius, and Anthon's no** 1 . B. 



246 ^NEID. b. vi. 757—781. 

Now come, I will explain to you what glory shall hence- 
forth attend the Trojan race, what descendants await them of 
the Italian nation, distinguished souls, and who shall succeed 
to our name ; yourself too I will instruct in your particular 
fate. See you that youth who leans on his pointless spear ? 
He by destiny holds a station nearest to the light ; he shall 
ascend to the upper world the first [of your race] who shall 
have a mixture of Italian blood in his veins, Sylvius, 54 an 
Alban name, your last issue ; whom late your consort Lavinia 
shall in the woods bring forth to you in your advanced age, 
himself a king, and the father of kings ; in whom our line 
shall reign over Alba Longa. 55 The next is Procas 56 the 
glory of the Trojan nation ; then Capys and Numitor follow, 
and JEneas Sylvius, who shall represent thee in name, equally 
distinguished for piety and arms, if ever he receive the crown 
of Alba. See what youths are these, what manly force they 
show ! and bear their temples shaded with civic oak ; these to 
thy honour shall build Nomentum, 57 Gabii, and the city Fi- 
dena ; these on the mountains shall raise the Collatine towers, 68 
Pometia, the fort of Inuus, Bola, and Cora. These shall then 
be famous names ; now they are lands without names. Fur- 
ther, martial Romulus, whom Hia of the line Assaracus shall 
bear, shall add himself as companion to his grandsire [Numi- 
tor]. See you not how the double plumes stands on his head 
erect, and how the father of the gods himself already marks 

54 Sylvius, a son of iEneas by Lavinia, from whom afterwards the 
kings of Alba were called Sylvii. Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus and 
Amata, who was betrothed to her relation, king Turnus, but was after his 
death given to ^Eneas. 

55 Alba Longa, a city of Latium, built by Ascanius. 

56 Procas, a king of Alba, father of Numitor and Amulius. Numitor, 
the father of Rhea Silvia, and grandfather of Romulus and Remus, who 
restored him to his throne, from which he had been expelled by Amulius, 
his younger brother. 

57 Momentum, (La Mentana,) a town of the Sabines in Italy. Cabii, 
a city of the Volsci, between Rome and Prseneste, where Juno was wor- 
shipped, who was hence called Gabina. Fidena, a town of the Sabines, 
on the Tiber, north of Rome. 

58 Collatine towers : Collatia, a town of the Sabines on the river Anio, 
built on an eminence. Pometia, a town of the Volsci, which was totally 
destroyed by the Romans because it had revolted. Inuus, a town of 
Latium, on the shores of the Tyrrhene Sea. Bola, a city between Tibur 
and Prseneste. Cora, a town of Latium, on the confines of the Volsci, 
built by a colony of Dardanians before the foundation of Rome. 






b. vi. 782-812. iENEID. 247 

Vim out with his distinguished honours ! Lo, my son, under 
his auspicious influence Rome, that city of renown, shall mea- 
sure her dominion by the earth, and her valour by the skies, 
and that one city shall for herself wall around seven strong 
hills, happy in a race of heroes ; like mother Berecynthia, 
when, crowned with turrets, she rides in her chariot through 
the Phrygian towns, joyful in a progeny of gods, embracing a 
hundred grandchildren, all inhabitants of heaven, all seated in 
the high celestial abodes. This way now bend both your 
eyes ; view this lineage, and your own Eomans. This is 
Caesar, and these are the whole race of Iulus, 5 ^ who shall one 
day rise to the spacious axle of the sky. This, this is the 
man whom you have often heard promised to you, Augustus 
Csesar, the offspring of a god ; who once more shall establish 
the golden age in Latium, through those lands where Saturn 
reigned of old, and shall extend his empire over the Gara- 
mantes and Indians : their land lies without the signs [of the 
zodiac], beyond the suns annual course, where Atlas, sup- 
porting heaven on his shoulders, turns the axle studded with 
flaming stars. Against his approach even now both the Cas- 
pian 60 realms and the land about the Palus Masotis are dread- 
fully dismayed at the responses of the gods, and the quaking 
mouths of seven-fold Nile hurry on their troubled waves. 
Even Hercules did not run over so many countries, though he 
transfixed the brazen-footed hind, quelled the forests of Ery- 
manthus, and made Lerna tremble with his bow : nor Bac- 
chus, who in triumph drives his car with reins wrapped about 
with vine leaves, driving the tigers from Nyssa's 61 lofty top. 
And doubt we yet to extend our glory by our deeds ? or is 
fear a bar to our settling in the Ausonian land ? 

But who is he at a distance, distinguished by the olive 
boughs, bearing the sacred utensils ? I know the locks and 
hoary beard of the Roman king, who first shall establish this 
city by laws, sent from little Cures 62 and a poor estate to vast 

59 lulus, a name given to Ascanius. 

60 Caspian realms, the Scythian nations inhabiting the borders of the 
Caspian Sea. Palus Masotis, Sea of Asoph. 

61 Nyssa, the name of several cities in various quarters of the world, 
sacred to Bacchus. 

62 Cures, a town of the Sabines: it was the birth-place of Numa Pom- 
pilius, the second king of Rome, a monarch distinguished by his love of 
peace Numa was succeeded by Tullus Hostilius, who was of a warlike 



248 ^NEID. B. vi. 813—831 

empire. Whom Tullus shall next succeed, who shall break 
the peace of his country, and rouse to arms his inactive sub- 
jects, and troops now unused to triumphs. Whom follows 
next vain-glorious Ancus, even now too much rejoicing in the 
breath of popular applause. Will you also see the Tarquin 
kings, and the haughty soul of Brutus, 63 the avenger [of his 
country's wrongs], and the recovered fasces ? 64 He first shall 
receive the consular power, and the axe of justice inflexibly 
severe; and the sire shall, for the sake of glorious liberty, 
summon to death his own sons, raising an unknown 65 kind of 
war. Unhappy he ! however posterity shall interpret that 
action, love to his country, and the unbounded desire of 
praise, will [prevail over paternal affection]. 66 See besides at 
some distance the Decii, Drusi, 67 Torquatus, 68 inflexibly se- 
vere with the axe, 69 and Camillus recovering the standards. 
But those [two] ghosts whom you observe to shine in equal 
arms, in perfect friendship now, and while they remain shut 
up in night, ah ! what war, what battles and havoc will they 
between them raise, if once they have attained to the light of 
life ! the father-in-law descending from the Alpine hills, and 
the tower of Monoecus ; 70 the son-in-law furnished with the 

disposition. Ancus Martius, the grandson of Numa, was the fourth king 
of Rome after the death of Tullus : he inherited the valour of Romulus 
with the moderation of Numa, and after a reign of twenty-four years, was 
succeeded by Tarquin the elder. 

63 Brutus (L. Junius), son of M. Junius and Tarquinia, second daugh- 
ter of Tarquin Priscus. He was the chief instrument in expelling the 
Tarquins from Rome, thus avenging Lucretia's violated honour, to which 
he had sworn. 

64 i. e. the government. B. 

65 Civil war being previously unknown in Rome. B. 

66 Alluding to the punishment of his sons for attempting the restoration 
of Tarquin. 

67 Drusus, the surname of the Roman family of the Livii, of which was 
Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus. 

68 Torquatus, a surname of Titus Manlius, a celebrated Roman, whose 
severity in putting to death his son, because he had engaged the enemy 
without his permission, though he had gained an honourable victory, has 
been deservedly censured. 

69 i. e. strict in exacting justice. B. 

70 Monoecus, a maritime town on the south-west coast ot Liguria, 
where Hercules had a temple. The two warriors here referred to are 
Julius Caesar and his son-in-law, Pompey the Great. The civil war be- 
tween Caesar and Pompey, which terminated with the battle of Pharsalia, 
a. c. 48, led to the overthrow of the Roman republic. 



u. vi. 832-847. ^ENEID. 249 

troops of the east to oppose him. Make not, my sons, make 
not such [unnatural] wars familiar to your minds ; nor turn 
the powerful strength of your country against its bowels. 
And thou, [Caesar,] first forbear, thou who derivest thy ori- 
gin from heaven ; fling those arms out of thy hand, O thou, 
my own blood ! That one, having triumphed over Corinth, 71 
shall drive his chariot victorious to the lofty Capitol, illus- 
trious from the slaughter of Greeks. The other shall over- 
throw Argos, and Mycenae, Agamemnon's seat, and Eacides 72 
himself, the descendant of valorous Achilles ; avenging his 
Trojan ancestors, and the violated temple of Minerva. Who 
can in silence pass over thee, great Cato, 73 or thee, Cossus ? 74 
who the family of Gracchus, 75 or both the Scipios, 76 those two 
thunderbolts of war, the bane of Africa, and Fabricius in low 
fortune exalted? 77 or thee, Serranus, 78 sowing in the furrow 
[which thy own hands had made] ? Whither, ye Fabii, 79 do 
you hurry me tired ? Thou art that [Fabius justly styled] 
the Greatest, who alone shall repair our state by delay. 

71 Corinth, the capital of Achaia in Greece, was situated on the isthmus 
between the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs. This famous city was totally 
destroyed by L. Mummius the Roman consul, b. c. 146. 

72 iEacides is here applied to Perseus, king of Macedon, who was de- 
scended from Achilles, the grandson of iEacus. Perseus was totally de- 
feated and taken prisoner by Paulus ^Emilius, the Roman consul, in the 
battle of Pydna, b. c. 168. Soon after this period, the whole of Greece 
fell under the Roman power. 

73 Cato, surnamed Uticensis, great-grandson of Cato the censor, was 
distinguished for his integrity and justice. To prevent his falling into 
the hands of Caesar, he stabbed himself, after he had read Plato's treatise 
on the Immortality of the Soul, at Utica, in Africa, whither he had fled, 
b. c. 46. 

74 Cossus, a military tribune, who killed Tolumnus, king of Veii, in 
battle, and was the second who obtained the spolia opima, which he 
offered to Jupiter. 

75 Gracchus, T. Sempronius, was distinguished both in the senate and 
the field ; he was the father of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus. 

76 Scipios ; both the father and son are meant. 

77 Fabricius, C. L., a celebrated Roman, the conqueror of Pyrrhus, 
king of Epirus, was remarkable for the great simplicity of his manLers, 
and :ontempt of luxury and riches. Davidson. Cf. Lucan, x. 151, '* et 
nomina pauperis aevi Fabricios Curiosque graves." B. 

78 Serranus, a surname given to Cincinnatus, who was found sowing 
his fields when informed that the senate had chosen him dictator. 

79 Fabii, a noble and powerful family at Rome, of whom sprung Quin- 
tus Fabius, the opponent of Hannibal. 



250 JENEID. b. vi. 848— SS3 

Others, I grant indeed, shall with more delicacy mould the 
breathing brass ; from marble draw the features to the life ; 
plead causes better ; describe with the rod the courses of the 
heavens, and explain the rising stars : to rule the nations with 
imperial sway be thy care, O Romans ; these shall be thy 
arts ; to impose terms of peace, to spare the humbled, and 
crush the proud. 

Thus father Anchises, and, as they are wondering, sub- 
joins: Behold how adorned with triumphal spoils Marcellus 80 
stalks along, and shines victor above the heroes all ! He, 
mounted on his steed, shall prop the Roman state in the rage 
of a formidable insurrection ; the Carthaginians he shall hum- 
ble, and the rebellious Gaul, and dedicate to father Quirinus 
the third spoils. And upon this ^Eneas [says] ; for he beheld 
marching with him a youth distinguished by his beauty and 
shining arms, but his countenance of little joy, and his eyes 
sunk and dejected: What youth is he, father, who thus 
accompanies the hero as he walks ? is he a son, or one of the 
illustrious line of his descendants ? What bustling noise oi 
attendants round him ! How great resemblance in him [to 
the other] ! but sable Night with her dreary shade hovers 
around his head. Then father Anchises, while tears gushed 
forth, began : Seek not, my son, [to know] the deep disaster 
of thy kindred; him the Fates shall just show on earth, nor 
suffer long to exist. Ye gods, Rome's sons had seemed too 
powerful in your eyes, had these your gifts been permanent. 
What groans of heroes shall that field near the imperial city 
of Mars send forth ! what funeral pomp shall you, O Tiberi- 
nus, see, when you glide by his recent tomb .! Neither shall 
any youth of the Trojan line in hope exalt the Latin fathers 
so high ; nor shall the land of Romulus ever glory so much 
in any of her sons. Ah piety ! ah that faith of ancient 
times ! and that right hand invincible in war ! none with 
impunity had encountered him in arms, either when on foot 
he rushed upon the foe, or when he pierced with his spur his 
foaming courser's flanks. Ah youth, meet subject for pity ! 

80 Marcellus, Marcus Claudius, a famous Roman general, signalized 
himself against the Gauls, having obtained the spolia opima, by killing 
with his own hand their king, Viridomarus. After achieving the con- 
quest of Syracuse, he was opposed in the field to Hannibal, but perished 
ii: an ambuscade. 



B. vi. 884-902. vit. 1, 2. ^)NEID. 251 

if by any means thou canst burst rigorous fate, thou shalt be 
a Marcellus. 81 Give me lilies in handfuls ; let me strew the 
blooming flowers ; these offerings at least let me heap upon 
my descendant's shade, and discharge this unavailing duty. 
Thus up and down they roam through all the [Elysian] re- 
gions in spacious airy fields, and survey every object : through 
each of whom when Anchises had conducted his son, and 
fired his soul with the love of coming fame, he next recounts 
to the hero what wars he must hereafter wage, informs him 
of the Laurentine people, and of the city of Latinus, 82 and 
by what means he may shun or surmount every toil. 

Two gates there are of Sleep, whereof the one is said to 
be of horn ; by which an easy egress is given to true visions ; 
the other shining, wrought of white ivory ; but [through it] 
the infernal gods send up false dreams to the upper world. 
When Anchises had addressed this discourse to his son and 
the Sibyl together, and dismissed them by the ivory gate, 83 
the hero speeds his way to the ships, and revisits his friends ; 
then steers directly along the coa^ for the port of Ca'ieta : 84 
where, [when he had arrived,] t anchor is thrown out from 
the forecastle, the sterns rest upu the shore. 

BOOK VII. 

In the Seventh Book, JEneas reaches the destined land of Latium, and con- 
cludes a treaty with the king Latinus, who promises him his only daughter 
Lavinia in marriage ; the treaty is, however, soon broken by the inter- 
ference of Juno, whose resentment still pursues the Trojans. The god- 
dess excites Turnus to war, who calls to his aid the neighbouring princes ; 
and the book concludes with an animated description of the enemy's forces, 
and their respective chiefs. 

Thou, too, Ca'ieta, nurse to JEneas, gavest to our coasts 
immortal fame by thy death ; and now thy honour here re- 

81 Marcellus, the son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus. He married 
Julia, the emperor's daughter, and was intended for his successor, but 
died suddenly at the early age of eighteen. Virgil procured himself great 
favours by celebrating the virtues of this amiable prince. 

82 City of Latinus ; Laurentum, (Paterno,) which was the capital of 
Latium in the reign of Latinus. 

83 Hence Warburton concluded that Virgil meant the whole episode 
to be regarded only as a dream of ths initiated. Too much ingenuity has 
been wasted on the subject. B. 

84 Ca'ieta, (Greta,) a sea-port town of Latium in Italy. 



252 ^INEID. b. vii. 3—36. 

sides, 1 and thy name marks thy remains [interred] in Hesperia 
the great, if that be any title to renown. And now that her 
funeral obsequies in due form were paid, and the mound of 
the tomb raised, pious -ZEneas, soon as the swelling seas were 
hushed, sails on his course, and leaves the port. The gales 
breathe fair towards the approach of night ; nor does the silver 
moon oppose his voyage ; under her trembling light the ocean 
shines. They skim along the coasts adjacent to Circe's 2 land : 
where with incessant song the wealthy daughter of the Sun 
makes her inaccessible groves resound, and in her proud pa- 
lace burns fragrant cedar for nocturnal lights, running over 
the slender web with her shrill-sounding shuttle. Hence were 
distinctly heard groans, the rage of lions reluctant to their 
chains, and roaring at the late midnight hour : bristly boars 
and bears were raging in their stalls, and wolves of prodigious 
form howled ; whom Circe, cruel goddess, had by her power- 
ful herbs transformed from human shape into the features 
and limbs of wild beasts : which monstrous changes that the 
pious Trojans might not undergo, if carried to that port, nor 
land on those accursed shores, Neptune filled their sails with 
favouring winds, and sped their flight, and wafted them be- 
yond the boiling shoals. And now the sea began to redden 
with the beams of the sun, and from the lofty sky the saffron- 
coloured morn shone in her rosy car, when on a sudden the 
winds grew still, every breath of air died away, and the oars 3 
struggle on the smooth surface of the lazy main. And here, from 
the deep, JEneas espies a spacious grove. Through this Tiberi- 
nus, [god] of the pleasant river Tiber, with rapid whirls and 
vast quantities of yellow sand discoloured, bursts forward into 
the sea. All around, and over-head, various birds, accustomed 
to the banks and channel of the river, charmed the skies with 
their songs, and fluttered up and down the grove. [Hither 
^Eneas] commands his mates to bend their course, and turn 
their prows towards land; and with joy he enters the shady 
river. 

1 Literally, " thy honour preserves its abiding place." Others take 
" sedens " as equivalent to " sepulchrum." B. 

2 Quos hominum ex facie. Circe is said to have transformed men into 
wild beasts, by means of certain herbs, and a magical wand, with whicb 
she touched them. The fable is taken from Homer, Odyss. x. 135. 

* " tonsae," scil. " arbores," used for oars. B. 






b. vii. 37—62. .2ENEID. 253 

Come now, Erato; 4 I will unfold, who were the kings, 
what the complexion 5 of the times, what the state of things in 
ancient Latium, when this foreign army first landed their fleet 
on the Ausonian coasts ; and trace back the original of the 
rising war. Do thou, O goddess, do thou instruct thy poet. 
I will sing of horrid wars, and kings by their fierce pas- 
sions driven to destruction, the Tuscan troops, and all Hes- 
peria in arms combined. A greater series of incident rises to 
my view ; in a more arduous task I engage. King Latinus, 6 
now full of days, ruled the country and its cities quiet in a 
lasting peace. This prince, as we traditionally receive, was 
the offspring of Faunus and Marica, a Laurentine nymph. 
Faunus had Picus 7 for his sire; and he, O Saturn, claims 
thee for his : thou art the remotest author of the line. To 
him, (Latinus,) by the appointment of the gods, no son, no 
male issue remained; but one, just as he grew up, was 
snatched away in the opening bloom of youth. An only 
daughter was to preserve his line, and so large possessions, 
now arrived at maturity, and fully ripe for marriage. Many 
from wide Latium, and throughout Ausonia, sought her hand : 
Turnus 8 makes his addresses, in charms far surpassing all the 
rest, and powerful in ancestors for many generations ; whom 
the royal consort, with wonderful eagerness, urged to have united 
to the family as her son-in-law : but prodigies from heaven, 
with various circumstances of terror, oppose. In the centre of 
the palace, within the deep recesses of the inner court, stood a 
laurel, with sacred locks, and for many years preserved with 
awe : which king Latinus having discovered when he was 
raising the first towers of his palace, was said to have conse- 

Erato, one of the Muses, who presided over lyric, tender, and amatory 
poetry. 

5 " tempora " refers to the condition of the different states in their 
mutual relations ; " status" to the independent condition of each respec- 
tively. B. 

6 Latinus, the son of Faunus, and king of the aborigines in Italy, whc 
from him were called Latins. He ^svas succeeded on the throne of Latium 
by ^Eneas, who married his daughter Lavinia. 

7 Picus, a son of Saturn, and father of Faunus, reigned in Latium, and 
was feigned to have been changed by Circe into a woodpecker. 

8 Turnus, son of Daunus and Venilia, and king of the Rutuli, in Italy. 
He made war against JEneas, who was his rival for the hand of Lavinia, 
daughter of king Latinus, but was defeated, and at last slain by JEneas 
in single combat. 



/ 



254 ^NEID b. vii. 63—98. 

crated to Phoebus, and from it to have given the name of 
Laurentines to the inhabitants. On the high summit of this 
tree thick clustering bees, strange to hear, wafted athwart the 
liquid sky with a great humming noise, planted themselves ; 
and, having linked their feet together by a mutual hold, the 
swarm hung in a surprising manner from the leafy bough. 
Forthwith the prophet said, We behold a foreign hero hither 
advancing, and an army making towards the same parts 
[where the bees alight], from the same parts [whence they 
came], and bearing sway in the lofty palace. Again, while 
with holy torches the virgin Lavinia kindles the altars, and is 
standing by her sire, she seemed, O horrid ! to catch the fire 
in her long flowing hair, and to have her whole attire con- 
sumed in the crackling flames, all in a blaze both as to her 
royal locks and crown rich with gems : then in clouds of 
smoke, [she seemed] to be involved in ruddy light, and to 
spread the conflagration over the whole palace. As to this, it 
was reputed terrible, and of astonishing aspect: for [the 
soothsayers] foretold, that Lavinia herself would be illustrious, 
both in fame and fortune, but threatened her people with a 
great war. 

But the king, anxious at these portentous signs, repairs to 
the oracle of prophetic Faunus, his sire, and consults his 
grove beneath lofty Albunea, 9 which, of woods the chief, re- 
sounds with a sacred fountain, and from its dark retreats sends 
forth a pernicious stream. Hence the Italian nations, and the 
whole land of (Enotria, seek responses when in perplexity. 
Hither when the priest had brought offerings, and in the deep 
silence of night laid himself down on the outspread skins of 
slain sheep, and disposed himself to sleep ; he observes 
many visionary forms fluttering about in a wondrous manner, 
hears various sounds, and enjoys interviews with the gods, 
and converses with the manes in the infernal regions. Here 
even father Latinus himself, being then in quest of a re- 
sponse, with due rites sacrificed an hundred fleecy ewes, and 
lay supported on their skins and outspread fleeces. From the 
deep grove a sudden voice was delivered : Seek not, my son, 
to join thy daughter in Latin wedlock, nor rest thy hopes on 
the match now designed. A foreigner comes, thy [future] 

9 Albunea, a wood near the city Tibur and the river Anio, sacred to 
the Muses. 






r>. rii. 98— 133. JENEID. *oo 

son-in-law, who, by his blood, shall exalt our name to the star?, 
and from whose race our descendants springing, shall see all 
things reduced under their feet, and ruled by their sway, 
where the revolving sun visits either ocean. 

These responses of father Faunus, and intimations given in 
the silence of night, Latinus himself shuts not up within his 
lips : but fame, fluttering all around, had now wafted the 
tidings through the Ausonian cities, when Laomedon's sons 
had moored their fleet to 10 the grassy rising bank. iEneas, 
the chief leaders, and blooming Iiilus, recline their bodies at 
ease under the branches of a tall tree ; prepare the repast, 
and under their banquet spread cakes of fine wheat along 
the grass, (so Jove himself admonished,) and load the wheaten 
board with woodland fruits. Here, as it chanced, having con- 
sumed their other provisions, as want of food compelled them 
to turn their teeth to the scanty cake, and violate with hands 
and daring jaws the orb of the fated bread, nor spare its broad 
quarters : What ! lulus says, are we eating up tables too ? 
nor carried his pleasantry further. No sooner was this remark 
heard than it announced the termination of their toils ; and 
instantly from the speaker's mouth his father snatched the 
word, and transported with admiration at the fulfilment of the 
oracle, mused awhile. Forthwith he spoke: Hail, O land, 
destined to me by the Fates ! and hail, ye gods, ye faithful 
tutelar gods of Troy ! This is our home, this our country. 
My sire Anchises (for now I recollect) bequeathed to me these 
secrets of Fate : When famine shall compel thee, my son, 
wafted to an unknown shore, to eat up your tables after your 
provisions fail, then be sure you hope for a settlement after 
your toils, and therewith your own hand found your first city, 
and fortify it with a rampart. This was that hunger [to 
which he alluded] : these our last calamities awaited us, which 
are to put a period to our woes. Come then, and with the 
sun's first light let us joyously explore what. places are these, 
or what men are the inhabitants, or where are the cities of 
the race ; and from the port let us pursue different ways. At 
present pour forth bowls in libation to Jove, and by prayers 

10 We must observe that the preposition " ab " is used in reference to 
the place whence the fastening proceeds. It is omitted in Ovid Met. 13, 
4o9, " Litore Threicio classem religarat Atrides." In Greek the con- 
struction is with a dative, as Apoll. Rh. ii. 177, yaiy ir*i<rua , r' avrjyf/av. B. 



256 ^NEID. B. vii. 134— 1G3. 

invoke my father Anchises, and replace 11 the wine profusely 
on the boards. 

Thus having said, he binds his temples next with a verdant 
bough, and supplicates the Genius of the place, and Earth, 
the eldest of the gods, together with the nymphs and rivers 
yet unknown ; 12 then Night, and the night's rising constella- 
tions,, and Idsean Jove, and Phrygian mother Cybele, he in- 
vokes in due form, and both his parents, the one in heaven, 
and the other in Erebus. 13 Upon this the almighty Sire 
thrice from the lofty heavens thundered aloud, and from the 
sky displays a cloud refulgent with beams of golden light, 
brandishing it in his hand. 

Here suddenly the rumour spreads through the Trojan 
bands, that the day was arrived whereon they were to build 
the destined city. With emulation they renew the banquet, 
and, rejoicing in the mighty omen, place the bowls, and crown 
the wines. Soon as the next day arisen had enlightened the 
earth with its first beams, by different ways they explore the 
city, the boundaries and the coasts of the nation : [they learn 
that] these are the standing waters of the fountain Numicus, 14 
this the river Tiber, that here the valiant Latins dwell. Then 
the son of Anchises orders a hundred ambassadors, selected 
from every rank, 15 to repair to the imperial palace of the king, 
all of them decked 16 with Minerva's boughs ; and carry gifts 
to the hero, and implore his peace towards the Trojans. 
Forthwith, commanded, they hasten and set forward with 
quick pace. JEneas himself marks out the walls with a low 
trench, and builds upon the spot, and encloses the first settle- 
ment on the shore, in the form of a camp, with a parapet and 
rampart. And now the youths, having measured out their 
way, beheld the towers, and lofty structures of the Latins, 
and approached the wall. Before the city, boys and youths 
in the bloom of early life are exercised on horseback, and 

11 i. e. " renew the banquet." Anthon. 

K So Silius, vi. 171, " Intramus tamen, et nymphas numenque preca- 
mur Gurgitis ignoti." B. 

13 i. e. Venus and Anchises. B. 

14 Now the Stagno di Levante. We must not understand the river 
Numicus near Lavinium. B. 

15 Not " from all the people." See Anthon. B. 

16 Compare the Greek i^ear^fjLkvoi The garlands were carriel in tliO 
iiani. B. 









b. vii. 163-188. JENEID. 257 

tame the yoked steeds on the dusty plain ; or bend the stiff 
bows, or, with the exerted strength of their arms, hurl the 
quivering dart, and challenge one another in the race or to 
pugilism : when a messenger riding before, bears the news to 
the aged king, that men of huge dimensions, in a strange garb, 
were arrived. He orders them to be invited into the palace, 
and seated himself in the midst on his ancient throne. On 
the highest part of the city stood a magnificent capacious 
structure, raised aloft on a hundred columns, the palace of 
Picus of Laurentum, awful for its sacred woods, and the re- 
ligious veneration of ancestors. It was [considered] a good 
omen for the kings here to receive the sceptre, and raise the 
first badges of royalty; this temple was their senate-house, 
this their apartment allotted for sacred banquets : here, after 
the sacrifice of a ram, the fathers were wont to take their seats 
together at the long tables. Besides, in the vestibule, accord- 
ing to their order, the statues of their ancestors in antique 
cedar stood; Italus, 17 and father Sabinus, and old Saturn, 18 
the planter of the vine, holding a crooked scythe under his 
figure, and the image of double-faced Janus ; 19 and other 
monarchs from the origin [of the race], who sustained martial 
wounds in fighting for their country. Besides, on the sacred 
door-posts many arms, captive chariots, and crooked scimeters, 
are suspended, helmet- crests, and massy bars of gates, and 
darts and shields, and beaks torn from ships. Picus himself, 
the breaker of steeds, sat with his augural wand, 20 dressed in 

17 Italus, an Arcadian prince, who is said to have established a king- 
dom in Italy, which received its name from him. Sabinus, from whom 
the Sabines were named. He received divine honours after death, and 
was one of those deities whom ^Eneas invoked when he entered Italy. 

18 Saturn, the son of Ccelus and Terra, married his sister Ops, who is 
also called Rhea and Cybele. He was dethroned and imprisoned by his 
brother Titan, but was restored to liberty and to his throne, by his son 
Jupiter, who, however, afterwards banished him from his kingdom, which 
he divided with his brothers Neptune and Pluto. Saturn fled to Italy, 
where his reign was so mild, that mankind have called it the golden age. 

19 Janus, the most ancient king of Italy, was a native of Thessaly, and, 
according to some, the son of Apollo; after death he was ranked among 
the gods, and is represented with two faces. His temple at Rome, where 
i he was chiefly worshipped, was always shut in time of peace, and open in 

time of war. 

20 This is the ablative of manner. Gellius, however, v. 8, supposes aa 
ellipse; others regard "succinctus lituo " as a zeugma. B. 



258 



-ENEID. 



u. vii. 189—222. 



his scanty tucked-up robe, and in his left hand wielded a little 
target ; whom Circe, his concubine, stung with desire, having 
struck with her golden rod, and by her spells transformed, 
made a bird, and interspersed his wings with colours. 

Within such a temple of the gods, and on his ancestral 
throne, Latinus, seated, called to him the Trojans into the 
palace ; to whom, when they had entered, he, in mild accent, 
first these words addressed : Say, ye sons of Dardanus, (for we 
are not unacquainted with your city or with your race, nor 
hither have you steered your course unheard of,) what seek 
ye ? what cause, or pressing exigency, has wafted your fleet 
to the Ausonian coast, over such an extent of azure seas ? 
Whether you have entered the banks of our river, and sta- 
tioned yourself in our port, by wandering from your way, or 
driven by stress of weather, (such things as in many shapes 
seamen suffer in the deep,) decline not hospitality, nor remain 
strangers to the Latins, Saturn's race, who practise equity, 
not by constraint or laws, but from spontaneous choice, and 
regulating themselves by the conduct of that ancient god. 
And, indeed, I call to mind, (the tradition is somewhat obscure 
through length of time,) that the old Aurunci 21 thus reported ; 
how Dardanus, a native of this country, reached the Idaean 
cities of Phrygia, and Thracian Samos, which now is called 
Samothracia. 22 Hence he had set out from his Tuscan seat in 
Corythus ; now enthroned, he sits in the golden palace of the 
starry heavens, and adds to the number of the altars of the 
gods. 

He said ; and Ilioneus made the following reply : O king, 
illustrious offspring of Faunus, neither a grim storm forced us, 
by billows harassed, to enter your realms ; nor did the stars 
or the coast mislead us from the course of our voyage. We 
I all with design, and willing minds, are brought to this city ; 
expelled from a kingdom, once the most powerful which the 
sun coursing from the extremity of heaven surveyed. From 
Jove is the origin of our race ; the sons of Dardanus rejoice 
in Jove their ancestor. Our king himself, JEneas the Tro- 
jan, sprung from Jove's exalted line, sent us to your courts. 
What a terrible storm, bursting from cruel Mycenae, hath 



M Aurunci, an ancient people of Latium, south-east of the Volsci. 

w Samothracia, an island in the Archipelago, off the coast of Thrace. 



3. vii. 223-259 ^ENEID. 259 

overrun the plains of Ida, under the influence of what fates 
both worlds of Europe and Asia engaged ; even those have 
heard, if such there are, whom earth's extremity removes afar, 
the expanded ocean intervening ; and those, if such there are. 
whom the regions of the intemperate sun, extended in the 
midst of the other four, divides [from the rest of mankind]. 
From that deluge borne over so many vast oceans, we beg for 
our country's gods a small settlement, and a harmless shore, 
and water and air, which are open to all. We shall be no 
dishonour to your realm ; nor shall trivial fame redound to 

: you, or our grateful sense of so generous an action ever be ef- 
faced ; nor shall the Ausonians repent that they received 

• Troy into their bosom. I swear by the fates of iEneas, and 
by his right hand that excels, whether any one has experienced 

: it in faith, or in war and martial deeds ; many people, many 
nations, (contemn us not, because of ourselves we bring in our 
hands the wreaths, and [in our mouths] the words of sup- 
pliants,) have not only been willing, but courted us to asso- 
ciate with them. But the destiny of the gods, by their 
commanding influence, compelled us to go in quest of your 
territories. Dardanus, who sprang from this country, hither 
re demands his offspring ; and Apollo, by his mighty summons, 
urges us to the Tuscan Tiber, and the sacred streams of the 
fountain Numicus. 23 ^Eneas offers you, besides, some small 
presents, remnants of his former fortune, saved from the flames 
of Troy. From this golden bowl father Anchises performed 
libations at the altar : this was borne by Priam, when he gave 
laws in form to the assembled people, the sceptre, and sacred 
diadem, and the robes, the work of the Trojan dames. 

At these words of Ilioneus, Latinus keeps his countenance 
fixed in steady regard, and remains unmoved on the ground, 
rolling his eyes intent. Neither the embroidered purple, nor 
Priam's sceptre, move him so much, as he muses on his 
daughter's nuptials, and deep in his breast revolves the oracles 
of ancient Faunus ; [concluding] that this is he who, come 
from foreign parts, by the Fates was ordained his son-in-law, 
and called to the regal power with equal sway : that from him 
a race would come in valour eminent, and who, by their 
power, should master the whole world. At length, with joy, 
he says : May the gods crown with success our enterprise and 

23 See vs. 151, with the note 
6 2 



260 JENEJD. b. vii. 260—292. 

their own presage. Trojan, what you demand shall be given : 
aot do I reject your present. While Latinus is king, not the 
fatness of a luxuriant soil, nor the opulence of Troy, shall be 
wanting to you. Only let JEneas come in person, if he has so 
great affection to us, if he longs to be joined with us in hospi- 
table league, and to be called our ally ; nor let him dread our 
friendly presence. To me it will be an advance towards 
peace to touch the hand of your prince. Do you now, on your 
part, report these my instructions to your king: I have a 
daughter, whom neither the oracles from my father's shrine, 
nor numerous prodigies from heaven, permit me to match with 
a husband of our own nation ; they foretell that this destiny 
awaits Latium, that its sons-in-law shall come from foreign 
coasts, who, in their descendants, shall to the stars exalt our 
name. That this is he whom the Fates ordain I both judge, 
and (if aught of truth my mind divines) I wish it too. 

This said, the sire chooses out steeds from his whole num- 
ber : in lofty stalls, three hundred of them stood in sleek ap- 
pearance. Forthwith for all the Trojans he commands the 
winged coursers, caparisoned with purple and embroidered 
trappings, to be led forth in order. Golden poitrels hang low 
down from their breasts; arrayed in gold, they champ the 
yellow gold under their teeth. For the absent hero, [he or- 
ders] a chariot, and a pair of harnessed steeds of ethereal 
breed, from their nostrils snorting fire, of the race of those 
whom crafty Circe produced, when, having stolen [horses] 
from her father [the Sun], she raised up a spurious breed by 
a substituted mare. With these presents and speeches from 
Latinus, the Trojans, mounted on their steeds, return, and 
bring back peace. 

But lo ! the unrelenting wife of Jove was on her return 
from Inachian Argos, 24 and, wafted in her chariot, possessed 
the aerial regions ; and, from on high, at the distance of 
Sicilian Pachynus, far off she spied -ZEneas full joyous, and 
the Trojan fleet. She sees [the Trojans] already labouring 
on the buildings, already settled in the land, and that they 
have abandoned their ships. Pierced with sharp grief she 
stood ; then tossing her head, she poured forth these words 

24 Inachian Argos, the capital of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, was so 
called from Inachus, u son of Oceanus and Tethys, who founded the king 
dom of Argos. 



D. vxi. 293— 319. jENEID. 2(>1 

from her breast : Ah ! race detested, and Fates of Troy op- 
posed to ours ! Was it in the compass of my power to over- 
throw them to the plains of Sigseum ? 25 made captives, could 
they be kept in captivity ? when Troy was burned to ashes, 
were they consumed ? through the midst of armies, through 
the midst of flames, have they then found their way ? But, 
I suppose, the power of my divinity, tired out now, lies inac- 
tive ; or glutted [with full revenge], I have dropped my 
resentment. Yet, with hostile intention, I dared to pursue 
them over the waves, when they had been driven out of their 
country, and on the vast wide ocean to oppose myself to the 
exiles. The powers of heaven and sea have been spent on the 
Trojans. Of what avail to me were the Syrtes, or Scylla, or 
the vast Charybdis ? In Tiber's wished-for channel they are 
lodged, secure against the seas and me. Mars was able to 
destroy the gigantic race of the Lapithae ; the father of the 
gods himself gave up his beloved Calydon 26 to Diana's re- 
sentment : what crime, either of the Lapithae, or of Calydon, 
had deserved such severe punishment ? But I, the great con- 
sort of Jove, who had power to leave no means untried, who 
had recourse to all expedients, unhappy ! am vanquished by 
JEneas. But if my own divinity is not powerful enough, 
surely I need not hesitate to implore whatever deity any 
where subsists : if I cannot move the powers above, I will 
solicit those of hell. Grant I be not permitted to bar him 
from the kingdom of Latium, and Lavinia be unalterably 
destined his spouse by fate ; yet I may protract, and throw 
obstacles in the way of those mighty events ; yet I may cut 
off the subjects of both kings. With this costly price of their 
people's blood, let the father and son-in-law unite. Thy 
dowry, virgin, shall be paid in Trojan and Rutulian blood ; 
and Bellona 27 waits thee for thy bride's-maid : nor did teem- 

26 Sigaeum, see note *•, iEneid, Book II. p. 138. 

26 Calydon, a city of JEtolia in Greece, where (Eneus, the father of 
Meleager, reigned. The king having neglected to pay homage to Diana, 
the goddess sent a wild boar to ravage the country, which at last was 
killed by Meleager. All the princes of the age assembled to hunt this 
boar, which event is greatly celebrated by the poets, under the name of 
the Chase of Calydon, or of the Calydonian Boar. 

27 Bellona, the goddess of war, daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, and, ac- 
cording to some, the sister and wife of Mars. ,— 



262 ^NEID. b. vii. 320-350. 

ing Hecuba 28 alone, impregnated with a firebrand, bring forth 
a blazing nuptial torch ; to Venus too this production of hers 
shall prove the same, even a second Paris, and a firebrand 
fatal to Troy again tottering to its fall. 

Having uttered these words, dreadful down to earth she 
plunged. From the mansions of the dire sisters, and the in- 
fernal glooms, she calls up baleful Alecto ; whose heart's de- 
light are rueful wars, strifes, and deceits, and noxious crimes. 
Her even her father, Pluto's self, abhors, her hellish sisters 
abhor the monster ; into so many shapes she turns herself, so 
hideous are her forms, with so many snakes the grim Fury 
sprouts up. Whom Juno stimulates with these words, and 
thus addresses : Virgin, offspring of Night, perform me this 
task, this service, your own peculiar province ; that our hon- 
our and wounded fame be not quite baffled, nor the JEnean 
race be able fawningly to circumvent Latinus by this match, 
or take possession of the Italian territories. Thou canst arm 
to war the most cordial brothers, and by animosities embroil 
families : thou canst introduce into houses scourges and fire- 
brands of death ; with thee are a thousand specious pretexts, 
a thousand arts of doing mischief : ransack thy fruitful bosom, 
unhinge the established peace, sow crimes that lead to war ; 
let the youth incline to, and at once demand and snatch up 
arms. 

Forthwith Alecto, infected with Gorgonian poisons, repairs 
first to Latium, and the lofty palace of the Laurentine mon- 
arch, and took possession of Amata's 29 silent gate; in whose 
inflamed breast female cares and angry commotions kept dis- 
quieting 30 on account of the arrival of the Trojans, and the 
match with Turnus. At her the goddess flings from her dark 
locks one of her snakes, and plunges it deep in her bosom 
down to its inmost recesses, that, by the monster, driven to 
fury, she may embroil the whole family. He, sliding between 
her robes and smooth breast, rolls on with imperceptible touch, 

28 Hecuba, daughter of Dymas, a Phrygian prince, or, according to 
others, of Cisseus, a Thracian king, was the second wife of Priam king 
of Troy, and the mother of Paris. 

29 Amata, the wife of king Latinus : she zealously favoured the ii terest 
of Turnus against ^Eneas. 

30 So " coquit" is used in Ennius apud Cic de Sen. i. " curamic In- 
V&8SO, Quae nunc te coquit." B, 



B. tii. 351— 3*3. ^NEID. 263 

and, in the transport of her rage, steals on her unawares, in- 
fusing into her a viperish soul : the huge snake becomes a 
chain of wreathed gold around her neck, he becomes a long 
winding fillet, and entwines her hair, and in slippery mazes 
creeps over her limbs. And while the first infection, down- 
ward gliding, with its humid poison attacks her senses, and 
blends the mingling fire with her bones ; and while her mind 
has not yet felt the flame throughout her bosom ; she spoke 
with softer accents, and in the wonted manner of mothers, 
making many a heavy lamentation about her daughter and the 
Phrygian match : And is Lavinia given in marriage to Trojan 
exiles ? and have you, her father, no pity on your daughter, 
or on yourself, or on her mother, whom with the first fair 
wind 31 the perfidious pirate will abandon, and return to sea, 
carrying off the virgin ? And did not the Phrygian shepherd 
thus steal into Lacedaemon, and bear away Leda's daughter, 
Helen, totthe Trojan city? What becomes of your solemnly 
plighted faith, your ancient regard for your people, and your 
right hand so often plighted to your kinsman Turnus ? If the 
Latins must have a son-in-law from a foreign nation, and this 
be determined, and the commands of your father Faunus press 
you, for my part I reckon every land foreign, which, inde- 
pendent, is disjointed from our dominion, and that thus the 
gods intend. And (if the first origin of his family be traced 
back) Turnus has Inachus and Acrisius 32 for his progenitors, 
and Mycenae, the heart [of Greece, for his country]. 

When, having tried him by these words in vain, she finds 
Latinus resolutely fixed against her, and the serpent's infuri- 
ated poison had now sunk deep into her bowels, and crept 
through all her frame; then, indeed, in wretched disorder, 
startled by hideous nionsters, she rages frantic with unex- 
ampled fury through the ample bounds of the city : as at times 
a whip-top whirling under the twisted lash, which boys intent 
on their sport drive in a large circuit round some empty court ; 
the engine driven about by the scourge is hurried round and 
round in circling courses ; the unpractised throng and beard- 
less band are lost in admiration of the voluble bcx-wood: 

ai The north wind would be favourable to a departure from Italy. B. 

82 Acrisius, king of Argos, was descended from Inachus, its founder, 
and was one of Turnus' ancestors. He was accidentally slain by his grand « 
aon Perseua 






264 ^NEID. B. vii. 384—420 

they lend their souls to the stroke. With no less impetuous 
career is the queen driven through the midst of cities, and 
among crowds all in fierce commotion. Aiming even at a 
more atrocious deed, and ushering in a higher scene of mad- 
ness, having counterfeited the enthusiasm of Bacchus, she 
flies out into the forest, and conceals her daughter in the 
woody mountains, that from the Trojans she may wrest the 
match, and retard the nuptials : exclaiming, Evoe Bacchus, 
and bawling out, that thou alone art worthy of the virgin ; 
for that, in honour of thee, she wields the tender ivy-wands, 
round thee she moves in the dance, for thee she feeds her 
sacred locks. The rumour flies ; and the same enthusiasm at 
once actuates all the matrons, inflamed by the furies in their 
breasts, to seek new habitations : they instantly abandon their 
homes ; to the winds they expose their necks and hair. Others 
again fill the skies with tremulous yells, and, wrapped in skins, 
wield their vine-dressed spears. She herself, in the midst of 
them, all on fire sustains a blazing pine, and sings the nuptial 
song for her daughter and Turnus, whirling her bloody eye- 
balls round ; and suddenly, with a stern air, she cries, to ! 
ye Latin matrons, hear, whatever you may chance to be : if 
any affection for unhappy Amata dwells in your humane 
souls, if concern for a mother's right touches you to the 
quick, unbind the fillets of your hair, with me take up the 
orgies. In this manner among the woods, among the deserts 
of wild beasts, Alecto, with the stimulating fury of Bacchus, 
all around goads on the queen. 

After she seemed sufficiently to have kindled the first trans- 
ports of rage, and embroiled the counsel and the whole family 
of Latinus ; forthwith the baleful goddess hence is borne on 
dusky wings to the walls of the bold Rutulian ; which city 
Danae, 33 wafted by the impetuous south wind, is said to havo 
fo unded for her Acrisian colony. The place was formerly 
ca lied Ardea by the ancient inhabitants, and now Ardea it 
remains, an illustrious name: 34 but its fortune has departed. 
Here, in his lofty palace, was Turnus enjoying repose at the 
h lack hour of midnight. Alecto lays aside her hideous aspect, 
and Fury's limbs ; she transforms herself into the shape of an 

33 Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos : she fled to Italy, 
and founded the city of Ardea, the capital of the Rutuli. 

34 i. e. " a name and nothing more." See Drakenb. on Silius i. 293. B< 



n Til. 421—453. JENEID. 265 

old hag, ploughs with wrinkles her loathsome front, assumes 
grey hairs with a fillet, and binds on them an olive bough : 
she takes the form of Calybe, the aged priestess of Juno's 
temple, and with these words presents herself to the youth full 
in his view : O Turnus, will you suffer so many toils to be lost 
and thrown away, and your sceptre to be transferred 36 to a 
Trojan colony? The king absolutely refuses you the match 
and dowry you have purchased with your blood ; and a 
foreigner is sought to inherit his kingdom. Go now, thus 
baffled, expose yourself to thankless dangers ; go, overthrow 
the Tuscan armies ; in peace protect the Latins. And now, 
in these very terms, the all-powerful queen of heaven herself 
commanded me plainly to address you, reclining in the still 
silent night. Wherefore despatch, and with alacrity order the 
youth to be armed, and march forth to war ; in flames con- 
sume both the Phrygian leaders, who are stationed in the fair 
river, and their painted vessels. So the awful majesty of 
heaven commands. Let king Latinus himself, unless he con- 
sents to grant the match, and stand to his word, know, and at 
length experience Turnus in arms. 

Upon this the youth, deriding the prophetess, thus in his 
turn replies : The intelligence has not escaped my ears, as 
you imagine, that a fleet is arrived in the Tiber's channel. 
Forge not to me such grounds of fear : for of us imperial Juno 
is not unmindful. But old age, O dame, oppressed with 
dotage, and barren of the truth, in vain harasses thee with 
cares ; and with false alarms deludes thee a prophetess, amid 
the warlike affairs of kings. Your province is to guard the 
statues and temples of the gods : let men have the management 
of peace and war, by whom war ought to be managed. 

By these words Alecto kindled into rage. As for the 
youth, while yet speaking, a sudden trembling seized his 
limbs ; his eyes stiffened : with so many snakes the Fury hisses, 
and a shape so horrid discloses itself: then, as he hesitates, 
and purposes more to say, rolling her fiery eyeballs, she re- 
pelled [his words], and reared the double snakes in her hair, 
clanked her whip, and thus further spoke in outrageous 
accent : Lo, here am I oppressed with dotage, whom old age, 
barren of the truth, deludes with false alarms amid the arms 

85 Cf. ^Sn. v. 750, and the note. B 



266 -ENEID. b. vii. 454—490, 

of kings. Turn thy eyes to these signs : I came from the 
abode of the dire sisters ; wars and death in my hand I bear. 
Thus having spoken, she flung a firebrand at the youth, and 
deep in his breast fixed the torch smoking with grim light. 
Excessive terror broke his rest, and sweat bursting from every 
pore drenched his bones and limbs. Frantic for arms he 
raves, for arms he searches the bed and the palace : a passion 
for the sword, a cursed madness after war, and indignation 
besides rage [in his breast]. As when with loud crackling a 
fire of twigs is applied to the sides of a bubbling caldron, and 
by the heat the water dances ; within, the violence of the 
water rages, and high the smoky fluid in foam overflows ; nor 
can the wave now contain itself; in pitchy steam it flies all 
abroad. Therefore, now that the peace is profanely violated, 
he enjoins the chief of the youth to repair to king Latinus, and 
orders arms to be prepared to defend Italy, to expel the 
enemy from their territories : [adding,] that he is a sufficient 
match for Trojans and Latins both. When he had thus 
spoken, and in vows had addressed the gods, the Rutulians 
with emulous ardour animate one another to arms. One is 
incited by his distinguished gracefulness of form and youth ; 
another by his regal ancestors ; a third by his right hand, with 
its glorious deeds. 

While Turnus inspires the Rutulians with courageous souls, 
Alecto on Stygian wings against the Trojans speeds her flight : 
having with fresh artifice espied the place where on the shore 
fair lulus was by snares and chase pursuing beasts of prey. 
Here the virgin of hell throws on his hounds a sudden mad- 
ness, and affects their nostrils with the well-known scent, with 
keen ardour to pursue a stag ; which was the first source of 
calamities, and inflamed the rustic minds to war. The stag 
was of exquisite beauty, and large horns ; which, snatched 
from its mother's dugs, the sons of Tyrrhus nursed up, and 
Tyrrhus, the father, to whom the royal herds are in subjec- 
tion, and the charge of the fields all around intrusted. The 
animal, trained to discipline, their sister Sylvia 36 with her 
utmost care was wont to deck, interweaving his horns with 
30ft garlands ; she combed and washed him in the clear stream. 

38 Sylvia, the daughter of Tyrrhus, shepherd of king Latinus, whose 
favourite stag was killed by Ascanius, which was the cause of war between 
iEneas and the Latins. 



B. vii. 491—524. JENEID. 267 

He, patient of the touch, and accustomed to his master's 
board, would range in the woods ; and again at night, how- 
ever late, to his home, his familiar retreat, of himself repaired. 
Him at a distance, while roving, the mad hounds of the hunts- 
man lulus roused, when by chance he was floating down with 
the stream, and on the verdant bank was allaying his heat. 
Ascanius himself too, fired with the love of distinguished 
praise, from his bended bow aimed arrows [at him] ; nor was 
the god unaiding to his erring hand ; 37 and with a loud [whiz- 
zing] sound the shaft impelled, pierced his belly and his flanks. 
The wounded animal fled homeward to his own habitation, 
and groaning entered his stall ; and all bloody, and like one 
imploring [pity], filled the house with moans. Sylvia, the 
sister, first, beating her arms with her palms, implores aid, 
and calls together the hardy swains. They (for the fierce 
fiend lurks in the secret woods) suddenly appear ; one armed 
with a brand hardened in the fire, one with a sturdy knotted 
club ; whatever by each in rummaging was found, his rage 
makes a weapon. Tyrrhus, as by chance with driven wedges 
he was cleaving an oak in four, breathing fury, snatches up 
his axe, and summons his rustic bands. But the savage god- 
dess, having from her place of observation found the oppor- 
tunity of executing her mischievous plot, mounts the high 
roof of the stall, and from the lofty summit sounds the shep- 
herd's signal, and in the winding horn strains her hellish 
voice; with which every grove forthwith quaked and the 
deep woods inly trembled. Even the lake of Diana heard it 
from afar ; the Nar, 38 white with sulphureous water, heard it, as 
well as the springs of Velinus ; and frightened mothers press- 
ed their infants to their breasts. Then, indeed, wherever the 
cornet direful gave the alarm, the wild unpolished swains, 
snatching up arms, hasten in concert from every quarter ; 
and, in like manner, from their open tents the Trojan youth 
pour forth supplies to Ascanius. They ranged their battalions. 
Nor now in rustic skirmish are they engaged with hardened 

clubs, and stakes burned at the point ; but with the doubtful 

« 

37 i. e. " his hand which would otherwise have erred." See Anthon. B. 

38 Nar, (Nera,) a river of Italy, rises in the Apennines, and forming a 
junction with the Velino, flows with great rapidity, and falls into the Ti- 
ber. Its waters are celebrated for their sulphureous properties. Velino 
ilso rises in the Apennines, and, by its stagnant waters, fo-ms a lake near 
the town of Reate, and falls into the Nar, near Spoletium 






263 .ENEID. b. vii. 525— 55H. 

steel 39 they encounter, and a hideous crop of drawn swords 
shoot up with horrid aspect, far and wide, and the arms of 
brass struck with the sunbeams glitter, and dart their radi- 
ance to the clouds : as when with the first breath of wind the 
wave begins to whiten, the sea rises by degrees, and higher 
and higher heaves its billows, then from the lowest bottom 
swells up together to the skies. Here, before the foremost 
line of battle, young Almon, the eldest of the sons of Tyrrhus, 
is by a whizzing arrow slain; for deep in his throat the 
wounding weapon stuck fast, and with the blood choked up 
the passage of the humid voice 40 and slender breath of life. 
Round him many bodies of heroes fall, and aged Galassus, 
while he is offering to mediate peace ; a man who was of all 
others the most upright, and formerly the richest in Ausonian 
lands. Five flocks of bleating sheep with live herds of cattle 
returned home [from his pastures] ; 41 and with a hundred 
ploughs he turned the soil. 

Now whilst through the plains these actions are going on 
with equal fury, the goddess, having accomplished her pro- 
mise, when she had drenched the field of war in blood, and 
began the havoc of the first encounter, leaves Hesperia, and 
turning away through the aerial sky in triumph, addresses 
Juno with haughty speech : See discord brought for you to its 
consummation by baleful war ! Bid them combine in friend- 
ship, and contract alliances, since I have imbrued the Trojans 
with Ausonian blood ! To these will I add this also ; if I be 
assured of your consent, the neighbouring towns by rumours 
will I urge on to the war, and inflame their minds with the 
passion of furious Mars, that from all hands they may come 
as auxiliaries ; war will I spread over all the country. Then 
Juno [said] in return : Of terrors and fraud there is enough : 
fixed are the causes of the war ; in arms they combat hand to 
hand ; those arms, which chance first gave, recent blood hath 
stained. Such espousals and such nuptial rites let Venus' 
peerless offspring and king Latinus himself celebrate. Father 

39 Referring to the equality of forces on both, sides. So " dubia cus* 
pide," Silius iv. 188. B. 

40 Cf. Silius iv. 171, " Haesit barbaricum sub anhelo gutture teluni; 
Et clausit raucum letali vulnere murmur." B. 

41 Davidson prefers taking " redeo " in its sense " of being one's in- 
come, stock or revenue/ ' B. 




B, vn. 556—590. JENEID. 269 

Jove, the great ruler of heaven supreme, permits you not to 
roam with farther licence in the higher regions. Retire from 
these places. Whatever turn of fortune our labours may 
henceforth take, myself will manage. These words Saturnia 
uttered. At which the Fury lifts up her wings hissing with 
snakes, and hies to the mansion of Cocytus, leaving the high 
places in this upper world. In the centre of Italy, under lofty 
mountains, lies a place of high renown, and celebrated by fame 
in many regions, the valley of Amsanctus : 42 the side of a 
grove, gloomy with thick boughs, hems it in on either hand, 
and in the midst a torrent, in hoarse murmurs and with whirl- 
ing eddies, roars along the rocks. Here are shown a horrible 
cave and the breathing-holes 43 of grisly Pluto ; and a vast 
gulf, having burst hell's barriers, expands his pestilential jaws : 
into which the Fury, abhorred demon, having plunged out of 
sight, disburthened heaven and earth. 

Not less active meanwhile is the imperial daughter of Sa- 
turn, in putting the last hand to the war begun. The whole 
body of the shepherds rush from the field of battle into the 
city ; and bring back their slain, the young Almon, and the 
corpse of Galaesus with ghastly wounds dishonoured: they 
implore the gods, and call Latinus to witness. Turnus too 
comes up, and in the midst of the charge of fire and sword, 
aggravates the terror; [complains] that the Trojans are in- 
vited to share the crown, and the Phrygian race incorporated 
[with the Latins], and he himself driven from the threshold. 
Then those, whose mothers, struck with Bacchanal fury, 
bound over the pathless groves in choirs, collected from every 
quarter combine, and importunately urge the war; for not 
inconsiderable is the influence of Amata's name. All these 
forthwith against the omens, against the decrees of the gods, 
in defiance of the thwarting power of heaven, crave the im- 
pious war. Emulously they beset the palace of king Latinus. 
He, like a rock in the sea unmoved, withstands them : like a 
rock in the sea, which, when the mighty shock comes on, while 
numerous waves around it roar, supports itself by its own 
huge weight ; in vain the cliffs and foamy rocks rage around, 
and the sea-weed dashed against its sides is driven back. But 

Amsanctus, a pestilential lake near Capua, in Italy, supposed, by tha 
poets, to be the entrance to the infernal regions. 

'• i. e. the vents, through which the mephitic vapour exhales. B. 



270 .ENEID. b. vii. 591—626. 

when no means avail to defeat their blind resolution, and 
things go on by the direction of fierce Juno, the aged monarchy 
having poured forth many protestations to the gods and skies 
in vain, exclaims, Alas ! by the Fates are we overpowered, 
and borne down by the storm. Yourselves, O wretches ! with 
your sacrilegious blood shall pay the atonement ; and thee, O 
Turnus, the impious promoter of this war, thee dire vengeance 
shall in time overtake ; and thou shalt supplicate the gods by 
vows too late. For, as to me, my rest is provided, and all my 
security is near 44 at hand : I am only deprived of a happy end. 
Nor more he said, but shut himself up in his palace, and quitted 
the reins of government. 

In Hesperian Latium it was a custom, which the Alban 
cities all along have observed as sacred, and which Rome, the 
mistress of the world, now religiously observes, when first they 
rouse Mars to battle; whether with the Getes 45 they intend 
to wage the disastrous war, or with the Hyrcanians, or the 
Arabs, or to march against the Indians, and pursue the morn- 
ing, and from the Parthians redemand the standards. There 
are two gates of War (for so they are called) deemed sacred 
from religious association, and the dread of cruel Mars: a 
hundred brazen bolts, and the eternal strength of iron, shut 
them fast ; and guardian Janus stirs not from the threshold. 
When the fathers have fixed the firm sentence of war, the 
consul himself, distinguished by his royal robe and Gabine 
cincture, unlocks the jarring portals; himself rouses the com- 
bat: then all the youth follow, and the brazen cornets with 
hoarse assent conspire. In this fashion Latinus then too was 
urged to declare war against the Trojans, and unfold the 
dreary gates. The aged prince refrained from touching them, 
and with abhorrence shrunk from the shocking office, and shut 
himself up in the dark shades. Then Saturnia, the queen of 
the gods, shooting from the sky, herself with her own hand 
pushed the lingering doors, and, turning the hinge, burst the 
brazen portals of war. 

Ausonia, before at rest and unmoved, is all on fire. Some 
prepare to take the field on foot ; some, mounted on lofty 
steeds, amidst clouds of dust, rush with fury [to the war] : all 

44 Literally, " my port is wholly in view." B. 

45 The Getes were a people of European Scythia, inhabiting that part 
of Dacia near the mouth of the Danube. 



b vii. 626—653. 



uENEID. 271 



are importunate for arms. Some with fat lard cleanse their 
smooth bucklers and glittering spears, and on the whetstone 
grind their axes ; well pleased to bear the standards, and hear 
the trumpets sound. Moreover, five great cities renew their 
arms, on anvils raised, namely, the powerful Atina, 46 and 
proud Tivoli, Ardea, and Crustumeri, and Antemnae, with tur- 
rets crowned. They hollow trusty coverings for their heads, 
and bend the osier hurdles for the bosses of their bucklers : 
others hammer out the brazen corselets, or from ductile silver 
mould the smooth greaves. To this all regard of the share 
and scythe, for this all love for the plough gave way. In fur- 
naces they forge their fathers' swords anew. And now the 
trumpets sound : the watchword, the signal for the war, is 
issued forth. One in eager haste snatches a helmet from 
the roof; another joins his neighing steeds to the yoke, 
and braces on his buckler and habergeon wrought in gold of 
triple texture, and girds himself with his trusty sword. 

Now open Helicon, 47 ye goddesses, and inspire me while I 
sing : what kings were incited to the war ; what troops fol- 
lowing each leader filled the plain ; with what heroes the aus- 
picious land of Italy flourished even in those early days, with 
what arms it blazed. For you, O goddesses, both remember, 
and can record : to us a slight breath of fame scarcely glides. 

First enters on the war, fierce from the Tuscan coasts, Me- 
zentius, 48 the contemner of the gods, and arms his troops. 
Next to him Lausus his son, to whom no one was more grace- 
ful, except the person of Laurentine Turnus. Lausus, the 
breaker of horses, and a mighty huntsman, leads from the 
city Agylla a thousand followers in vain: 49 worthy to have 
had more joy in [obeying] a father's commands, and to whom 

46 Atina, a city of the Volsci. Tivoli, the ancient Tibur, a city of the Sa- 
bines, about sixteen miles north-east of Rome, delightfully situated on the 
banks of the Anio: it was the favourite country residence of the Romans. 
Ardea, the capital of the Rutuli. Crustumerium and Antemnae, towns of 
the Sabines : the latter was situated near the confluence of the Anio and 
Tiber. 

47 Helicon, a celebrated mountain of Boeofia, sacred to Apollo and the 
Muses, from which issued the fountains Hippocrene and Aganippe. 

48 Mezentius, king of the Tyrrhenians, was expelled by his subjects on 
account of his cruelties, when he fled to Turnus, who employed him in 
his war against the Trojans. He and his son Lausus were slain by 
/Eneas. 

49 Because he was never to return. B. 







272 JENEID. b. vii. 654—684 

Mezentius ought not to have been the father. Next to these 
fair Aventinus, sprung from renowned Hercules, 50 proudly 
displays upon the grassy plain his chariot distinguished by the 
palm, and his victorious steeds ; and on his buckler wears his 
paternal ensign, a hundred snakes, and a hydra environed 
with serpents: whom in a wood on the Aventine hill the 
priestess Rhea brought forth, her furtive offspring, into the re- 
gions of light, a woman mixing with a god ; at the time when 
the victorious Tirynthian 51 hero, having slain Geryon, reached 
the Laurentine fields, and washed his Iberian heifers in the 
Tuscan river [Tiber], Javelins in their hands, and cruel pikes, 
they bear into the field of war ; and fight with the tapering point 
of the Sabine spike-dart. Himself [appeared] on foot, shaking 
a lion's enormous hide, shaggy with fearful bristles, its white 
tusks displayed, having it thrown over his head : thus he en- 
tered the royal palace, a horrid figure, and his shoulders man- 
tled with the attire of Hercules. Two brothers next, Catillus 52 
and fierce Coras, Argive youths, forsake the walls of Tibur, its 
people called by their brother Tiburtus' name ; and before the 
van, amidst thick flying darts, are hurried along : as when two 
cloud-born Centaurs from the high mountain's top descend, 
with impetuous career, leaving Omole 53 and snowy Othrys ; the 
spacious wood gives way to them as they move, and the shrubs 
with loud rustling noise give way. Nor did the founder of 
the city Prseneste 54 absent himself: king Caeculus, whom 
every age believed to have been begotten by Vulcan amidst 
the rural herds, and to have been found near the fire. Him 
a rustic band accompanies from all the neighbourhood around : 
both those who inhabit high Prseneste, and those who culti- 
vate the fields of G-abine Juno, or the cool Anio, and the 
mountainous towns of the Hernicians, 55 dewed with rills: 

50 Anthon's version is, " Aventinus, of heroic mien, sprung from Her- 
cules, type of heroic beauty." B. 

81 Tirynthian hero, a name of Hercules, from Tirynthus, a town of 
Argolis in Peloponnesus, where he generally resided. 

52 Catillus, a son of Amphiaraus, who. with his brothers Coras and Ti- 
burtus, assisted Turnus against ,<Eneas. 

53 Omole and Othrys, two lofty mountains in Thessaly, once the resi. 
dence of the Centaurs. 

54 Praeneste, (Palestrina,) a city of Latium, about twenty -four "tiiles e^st 
from Rome, supposed to have been built by Caeculus, the son of Vuican. 

w Hernicians, a people of Campania, who were inveterate enemies a1 



K. Til 684—711. .ENEID. 273 

whom thou, rich Anagnia, whom thou, father Amasenus, 
feedest. These are not all supplied with rattling arms, or 
shields, or cars : tho greatest part sling balls of livid lead : 
some wield two javelins in the hand, and for covering to their 
heads wear tawny beavers of the fur of wolves : with the left 
foot naked they tread the ground ; a shoe of un wrought 
leather covers the other. Messapus 56 next, a gallant horse- 
man, Neptune^ offspring, whom none had power to prostrate 
by fire or steel, suddenly calls to arms his peopl long sunk in 
indolence, and his troops disused to war, and handles the 
sword once more. These command the Fescennine troops, 
and the Falisci 57 famed for equity ; those possess the strengths 
of Soracte, 58 and the Flavinian land, and the lake and moun- 
tain of Ciminus, and Capena's groves. Uniformly they moved 
in harmonious order, and sang the praises of their king : as 
when at times the snow-white swans through the liquid sky 
are homeward borne from pasture, and through their long 
necks pour melodious notes ; the river [Cayster] and the 
Asian lake, struck from far, return the sound. Nor would 
any one have taken them for armed troops of such a vast body 
promiscuously joined, but for an airy cloud of hoarse-voiced 
fowls driven to the shore from the deep abyss. Lo ! Clausus, 59 
of the ancient blood of the Sabines, [came,] leading a mighty 
host ; [Clausus,] from whom the Claudian tribe and clan are 
now through Latium diffused, since Rome has been shared 
with the Sabines. With them Amiterna's 60 numerous bands, 
and the ancient Quirites, 61 the whole power of Eretum, and 
olive-bearing Mutuscae : those who inhabit the city Nomen- 

the Romans. Anagnia, a city of the Hernici. Amasenus, (La Toppia,) 
a river of Latium, falling into the Tyrrhene Sea. 

56 Messapus, a son of Neptune, who left Boeotia. and came to settle in 
Italy, where he assisted Turnus against ^Eneas. 

" Falisci, a people of Etruria, originally a Macedonian colony. Fes- 
cennia, also a town of Etruria. 

58 Soracte, (M. S. Oreste,) a mountain of Etruria, about 26 miles ncrth 
i of Rome, sacred to Apollo. Flavinia and Copena, towns of Etruria. 
i Ciminus, a mountain and lake of Etruria. 

59 Clausus, king of the Sabines, who assisted Turnus against ^Eneas : 
! he was the progenitor of Ap. Claudius, the founder of the Claudian family. 

60 Amiterna, Eretum, and Mutuscae. towns of the Sabines. 

61 Quirites ; the Sabines were so called from the town of Cures, which 
they inhabited ; the name was also given to the citizens of Rome, aftei 
their union with the Sabines. 



274 .ENEID. if. vn. 712— 734. 

turn, and the dewy fields of Velino, the horrid rocks of Te- 

trica, 62 and Mount Severus, Casperia, and Foruli, and the river 
of Himella: 63 those who drink the Tiber and the Fabaris ; 
those whom cold Nursia sent, the Hortine squadrons, and the 
Latin nations ; and those whom Allia, 64 an inauspicious name, 
dividing runs between : in such numbers as the billows are 
rolled on the surface of the Libyan main, when surly Orion 
sets in the wintry waves ; or as numerous as are the thick 
ears of corn, scorched by the first heat of the [summer's] sun, 
either on the plain of Hermus, or in Lycia'3 yellow fields. 
Their bucklers ring, and earth, struck with the trampling of 
their feet, trembles. Next Halesus, 65 of Agamemnon's race, 
foe to the Trojan name, yokes his steeds in the chariot, and 
hurries to Turnus' aid a thousand fierce tribes ; those who 
with harrows turn the soil of Massicus fertile in vines, and 
whom the Auruncan fathers sent from their lofty hills, and 
the adjacent plains of Sidicinum ; 66 those who march from 
Cales, and who border on the fordable river Vulturnus ; to- 
gether with the hardy inhabitants of Saticula, 67 and the troops 
of the Osci. Short tapering darts are their weapons; but 
their fashion is to fit them with a limber thong. A short 
target covers their left arms ; and hand to hand [they fight 
with] crooked falchions. Nor shall you, CEbalus, 68 be in my 
numbers left unnamed, whom Telon is said to have begotten 
from the nymph Sebethis, when, now advanced in years, he 

62 Tetrica and Severus, mountains in the country of the Sabines, near 
the river Fabaris. Casperia and Foruli, towns of the Sabines. 

68 Himella and Fabaris, (Farfa,) rivers of the Sabines ; the former falls 
into the Tiber below Cures. Nursia and Hortu, towns of the Sabines. 

64 Allia, (Aia,) a river of Italy falling into the Tiber. On its banks 
the Romans were defeated with great slaughter by the Gauls under Bren- 
nus, b. c. 387. Hence it was deemed inauspicious. 

65 Halesus, a son of Agamemnon and Briseis or Clytemnestra. Having 
been driven from home, he came to Italy, where he settled on Mount 
Massicus, in Campania, and was killed by Pallas in the war between 
Turnus and ^Eneas. 

66 Sidicinum and Cales, towns of Campania, in Italy. Vulturnus, a 
river of Campania, rising in the Apennines, and falling into the Tyrrhene 
Sea, after passing near the city of Capua. 

67 Saticula, a town of the Samnites, in Italy, east of Capua. Osci, a 
people between Campania and the country of the Volsci. 

68 CEbalus, a son of Telon, king of the Teleboans, a people of iEtolia, 
in Greece, and the nymph Sebethis. The Teleboans under CEbalus set- 
lied in Caprea?, (Capri,) an island on the coast of Campania in Italy. 



r. vii. 735— 762. -2ENE1D. 275 

possessed Capreae, the realms of the Teleboans ; and the son 
likewise, not content with his paternal lands, even then ex- 
tended his dominion far and wide over the Sarrastes, 69 and 
the plains which Sarnus waters. Those also who inhabit 
Rufae and Batulum, and the fields of Celenna, and those whom 
the walls of fruit-bearing Abella overlook ; who, after the 
Teutonic fashion, are wont to sling the Cateian darts, 70 whose 
helmets are the rind torn from the cork-tree, and whose half- 
moon shields and swords are formed of glittering brass. And 
thee too, Ufens, 71 mountainous Nursse sent forth to battle, 
signalized by fame and happy feats of arms: whose subjects 
are the .ZEquicolae, a race peculiarly rough, bred in a hardened 
soil, and inured to frequent hunting in the woods. In arms 
they harass the earth, and ever take delight to carry off fresh 
spoils, and live by plunder. And Umbro 72 too, of singular 
fortitude, came by permission from his prince Archippus, 
priest of the Marrubian nation, his helmet decked with a 
wreath of the auspicious olive ; who by enchantment and 
dexterity was wont to sprinkle sleep on the viper's race, and 
the noxious-breathing hydras ; their fury he assuaged, and by 
his art their stings he healed. But to cure the hurt of pointed 
Dardanian steel surpassed his power and skill ; nor soporific 
charms, nor herbs gathered on the Marsian mountains, availed 
him aught against those wounds. For thee, Angitia's grove, 
for thee, Fucinus, with his crystal flood, for thee the glassy 
lakes did mourn. Virbius, 73 too, the beauteous offspring of 
Hippolytus, marched to the war; whom his mother Aricia 74 

99 Sarrastes, a people of Campania on the river Sarnus, which divides 
that country from the Picentini, and falls into the Bay of Naples. Rufae, 
&c, towns of Campania. 

70 Perhaps resembling the " aclydes " in vs. 730. See Anthon. B. 

71 Ufens, a river of Latium, falling into the Tyrrhene Sea near Tarra- 
cina. Nursae, a town of Umbria in Italy. ^Equicoli, a people of Latium 
near Tibur. 

72 Umbro, a general of the Marsi, whose capital, Marrubium, was situ- 
ated on the banks of the lake Fucinus. Angitia, a wood in the country 
of the Marsi, between Alba and the lake Fucinus (L. di Celano). 

73 Virbius, a name given to Hippolytus after he had been restored to 
life by iEsculapius at the instance of Diana, who pitied his unfortunate 
end. Virgil makes him the son of Hippolytus. 

74 Aricia, an Athenian, whom Hippolytus married, after he had been 
restored to life by ^Esculapius. Egeria, a nymph of Aricia in Italy 
where Diana was particularlv worshipped 

t 2 



276 iRNEID. B. vii. 7G3— 798 

sent forth illustriously accomplished, having been educated in 
the groves of Egeria, near the humid shores, where, rich 
Jwith offerings], and not implacable, Diana's altar stands. 
For they report that Hippolytus, when by his step-dame's art 
he had fallen, and with his blood had satiated his father's 
vengeance, having been torn in pieces by his frighted steeds, 
again visited the ethereal stars, and the superior regions of 
this world, recalled [to life] by medicinal herbs, and Diana's 
love. Then the almighty father, incensed that any mortal 
should rise to the light of life from the infernal shades, him- 
self with thunder hurled down to the Stygian floods Apollo's 
offspring, the inventor of such medicine and art. But pro- 
pitious Diana conceals Hippolytus in a secret recess, and 
consigns him to the nymph of the Egerian grove ; where in 
solitude and obscurity he passed his life in the Italian woods, 
and changing his name was called Virbius : whence too from 
Trivia's 75 temple and sacred groves horn-hoofed steeds are 
debarred, because, frightened by sea-monsters, they overturned 
the chariot and the youth on the shore. Yet not the less 
eagerly his son managed his fiery steeds on the level plain, 
and in his chariot rushed on to the war. Turnus himself, a 
comely personage, moves on in the van, wielding his arms, 
and by a full head overtops the rest ; whose towering helmet, 
plumed with a triple crest of hair, sustains a Chimaera breath- 
ing from her jaws iEtnean fires. The more outrageous was 
she, and tremendous with baleful flames, in proportion as with- 
the effusion of blood the combat grows more fierce. An Io, 
wrought in gold with horns erect, adorned his polished steel ; 
Io, now overgrown with fur, now a heifer, (a mighty device,) 
and Argus 76 the virgin's keeper, and Inachus her sire, pouring 
the river from his embossed urn. A cloud 77 of infantry suc- 
ceeds, and shielded battalions in condensed array overspread 
the whole plain ; the Argive youth, the Ausonian bands, the 
Kutuli, and ancient Sicanians, the Sacranian hosts, and the 
Labici with their painted bucklers: those, Tiberinus, who 
cultivate thy glades, and the sacred banks of Numicus, and 

75 Trivia, a name given to Diana, because she presided over all places 
where three roads met. 

76 Argus, feigned to have a hundred eyes, of which only two were 
asleep at once. Juno sent him to watch Io. 

77 Cf. Horn. II. A. 274. Apoll. Rh. iv. 397, dvefxevewv dvdpZv vitpog. B- 



R vii. 798—817. vni. 1—7. J3NEID. 277 

with the ploughshare labour the Rutulian hills and Circe's 
mount ; over which fields presides Jupiter of Anxur, 78 and Fe- 
ronia rejoicing in her verdant grove, where lie Saturn's gloomy 
fen, and where chill Ufens through deep valleys seeks his way, 
and sinks into the sea. Besides these came Camilla 79 of the 
Volscian nation, leading a squadron of horse, and troops gorge- 
ously arrayed in brass ; a virgin-warrior. Not to the distaff 
or the work-baskets of Minerva had she accustomed her fe- 
male hands ; but, though a virgin, [was inured] to bear the 
hardships of war, and in swiftness of foot to outstrip the 
winds. Even over the topmost stalks of standing corn she 
could have lightly skimmed, nor once had hurt the tender 
ears in her career ; or along the main, suspended on the heav- 
ing surge, could glide, nor in the liquid plain dip her nimble 
feet. Her all the youth, pouring from city and country, and 
the crowd of matrons, view with wonder, and gaze after her 
as she goes, gaping with minds aghast to see how the regal 
ornament of purple mantles her smooth neck ; how the buckle 
interlaces her hair in gold ; with what grace she bears her 
Lycian quiver, and her pastoral myrtle -spear tipped with 
steel. 

BOOK VIII. 

In the Eighth Book, iEneas forms an alliance with Evander, who sends to 
his assistance a chosen hody of men under his son Pallas. Yenus presents 
iEneas with a suit of armour, fabricated by Vulcan ; on the shield are 
represented the future glory and triumph of the Romans. 

Soon as from the citadel of Laurentum Turnus had dis- 
played the signal, and with hoarse clangour the trumpets rat- 
tled ; soon as he roused the sprightly coursers, and clashed 
the arms ; forthwith their minds are driven to high commo- 
tion ; all Latium at once with hurrying tumultuous haste com- 
bine, and the frantic youth burn with fury. The chief leaders, 
Messapus and Ufens, and that contemner of the gods, Mezen- 

78 Anxur, a city of the Volsci in Latium, sacred to Jupiter. Feronia, 
a Roman goddess, the mother of Herilus; she had the care of woods and 
orchards. 

79 Camilla, queen of the Volsci, was the daughter of Metabus and Cas- 
ir.illa. She assisted Turnus in the war- against iEneas, and signalized 
herself by undaunted bravery. 



2 ?8 JENEID. b. vin 8—41 

tius, draw together their succours from every quarter, and 
of their labourers depopulate the lands around. Venulus 1 
too is sent to the city of great Diomede to crave a supply, 
and to bear word, that the Trojans were settled in Latium ; 
that -ZEneas was arrived with a fleet, and was introducing 
his conquered gods, and gave out that he was designed by 
Fate to be the king [of Latium] ; that many nations joined 
themselves to the Trojan, and his fame began to be spread 
abroad all through Latium. What he proposes by these 
measures, what result of the war he longs to bring about, (if 
fortune attend him,) appear more obvious to [Diomede] him- 
self than to king Turnus, or king Latinus. 

Such in Latium was the state of affairs : all which the Tro- 
jan hero perceiving, fluctuates with a high tide of anxious 
care ; and now this way, now that, he swiftly turns his wa- 
vering mind, snatches various purposes by starts, and shifts 
himself every way: as when in brazen caldrons 2 of water the 
tremulous light, reflected from the sun, 3 or from the image of 
the radiant moon, swiftly glances over every place around, and 
now is darted up on high, and strikes the ceiling of the lofty 
roof. It was night, and profound sleep held fast the wearied 
animals, the cattle and flying kind over all the earth ; when on 
the bank, and beneath the axis of the chill sky, father iEneas, 
disturbed in mind with the thought of disastrous war, laid 
himself down, and indulged his weary limbs in late repose. 
To his view Tiberinus himself, the old god of the place, from 
his smooth gliding stream, was seen to lift up his head among 
the poplar boughs : a fine robe of lawn enwrapped his limbs 
in its sea-green folds, and shady reeds covered his locks. 
Then thus he addressed [JEneas], and with these words eased 
him of his cares : O thou, sprung from the race of gods, who 
to us bringest home Troy saved from its foes, and preservest 
Pergamus, destined to stand for ever, an expected [guest] to 
the Laurentine soil and lands of Latium ; here is thy sure 
abode, thy sure dwelling-place : flinch not, nor be dismayed 
by the threats of war. All indignation and anger of the gods 

1 Venulus, an ambassador sent by Turnus to demand the assistance of 
Diomedes. 

2 Literally, " the lips of the caldrons." B. 

* By " sole " I think is to be understood the image of the sun reflected w 
the water, as in the next words, the image of the moon. 



* viii. 43 — 78. ^5NEID. 279 

v sre overpast And now that you may not imagine sleep forma 
these as visionary images, under the elms on the banks of the 
river you will find a sow lying, that has farrowed a litter cf 
thirty young, white the dam, reclining on the ground, her off- 
spring white around her dugs. That place shall be the station 
for your city, a sure rest from your toils ; in consequence of 
which, after a revolution of thrice ten years, Ascanius shall 
build the city Alba of illustrious name. Events I foretell not 
uncertain. Now attend ; I will briefly show by what means 
you may accomplish with success the work in hand. On 
these coasts the Arcadians, a race from Pallas descended, 
(who, hither accompanying their king Evander and his stand- 
ard, have chosen their place [of residence], and in the moun- 
tains built a city [called] Pallanteum, 4 from the name of their 
ancestor Pallas,) perpetually carry on war with the Latin na- 
tion : admit them as confederates of your camp, and with 
them join league. Myself will conduct you along my banks 
and river straight on your way, that borne up [by my aid] 
you may with oars surmount the adverse stream. Arise, be- 
stir yourself, O goddess-born, and with the first-setting stars 
offer prayers to Juno in due form, and by suppliant vows over- 
come her resentment and threats. To me you shall pay 
honour when victorious. I am he whom you behold gliding 
along the banks with my full stream, and dividing the fertile 
lands ; the azure Tiber, a river highly favoured by heaven. 
Here is my spacious mansion ; near lofty cities my fountain 
springs. He said, then in the deep pool the river-god 
plunged, diving to the bottom : from jEneas night and sleep 
departed. He started up, and viewing the rising beams of the 
ethereal sun, in his hollow palms with pious form he raised 
water from the river, and poured forth to heaven these words : 
Ye nymphs, ye Laurentine nymphs, whence rivers have their 
origin ! and thou, O father Titer, with thy sacred river ! re- 
ceive JEneas, and defend him at length from dangers. In 
whatever source thy lake contains thee compassionate to our 

4 Evander, an Arcadian, and the grandson of Pallas, left his native 
city, Pallanteum, probably in consequence of parricide, committed at the 
instigation of his mother Nicostrata, or Carmentis, (Servius on vs. 51,) 
and founded a city in Latium, called after the mother state. Dionys. Hal. 
i. p. 25, ed. Sylb. Aurel. Victor de or. Rom. Gent. v. 3. Afterwards 
the Romans called it the Palatium. It was the most sacred and hallowed 
part of Rome, as Maineitinus remarks, Paneg. Vett. i. B 



280 ^NEID. b. vin. 79—110. 

misfortunes, from whatever soil thou springest forth most 
_beauteous. Horn-bearing river, monarch of the Italian 
streams, ever shalt thou be honoured with my veneration, 5 
ever with my offerings : Oh grant us by thy present aid, and 
by nearer aid confirm thy divine oracles. Thus he speaks ; 
and from his fleet singles out two galleys, and furnishes them 
with implements for rowing ; at the same time supplies his 
friends with arms. But lo ! a prodigy sudden and strange to 
sight, a milk-white sow of similar colour with her white 
young, lay along the wood, and was seen on the verdant 
bank ; which to thee, O sovereign Juno, even to thee, pious 
JEneas devotes as an offering, and presents before thy altar 
with her offspring. The Tiber, all that night long, calmed 
his swelling river, and refluent with a silent stream subsided 
to such a degree, that, like a mild pool and peaceful lake, he 
smoothed his watery plain, that there might be no need of 
struggling with the oar. Therefore with auspicious cheers 
they speed their commenced voyage: the well-pitched fir 
glides along the stream ; the waves admire, the woods, unac- 
customed to the sight, survey with wonder the far-gleaming 
shields of heroes, and the painted keels floating on the river. 
Their steerage night and day they labouring ply, overpass 
the long windings [of the river], are screened with various 
trees, 6 and cut the green woods, as they move along the 
smooth glassy plain. 

The scorching sun had ascended the mid region of the 
sky, when at a distance they descry the walls, the fort, and 
the roofs of houses here and there, which now the Roman 
power hath raised to heaven : Evander then possessed the 
scanty domains. They turn their prows to land without de- 
lay, and approach the city. On that day the Arcadian king 
chanced to be offering a solemn sacrifice before the city in a 
grove to the great [Hercules], Amphitryon's son, 7 and to the 
gods. At the same time his son Pallas, 8 and with him all the 

5 " Honor " refers to acts of worship, " donis " to offerings made 
therein. So Liv. viii. 33, " arse sacrifices fument, honore, donis curau- 
ientur." B. 

6 Which overhung the banks on both sides. B. 

7 i. e. reputed son, being really the son of Jove. B. 

Pallas, the son of Evander, was sent with a body of troops to assist 
-Eneas, and, after performing many gallant deeds, was killed by Turnus. 



p. viii. 111—148. iENEID. 281 

youth of quality, and the poor 9 senate, were offering incense ; 
and the tepid blood smoked at the altars. Soon as they ob- 
serve the tall vessels gliding towards them amidst the shady 
grove, and that [the crew] were bending to the silent oars, 
they are startled at the sudden sight, and leaving their ban- 
quets, all rise up at once ; whom Pallas boldly forbids to in- 
terrupt the sacred rites, and snatching up a javelin flies him- 
sels to meet them, and at a distance speaks from a rising 
ground : Youths, what motives have induced you to attempt 
an unknown way ? whither are you bound ? who are you by 
descent ? whence came you ? peace bring you hither or war ? 
Then father JEneas thus from the lofty deck replies, and in 
his hand before him extends a branch of peaceful olive : The 
sons of Troy you see, and arms hostile to the Latins, who have 
exiled and driven us out by haughty war. To Evander we 
repair. Bear him these tidings, and say, Dardania's chosen 
chiefs are come, imploring his confederate arms. Pallas, struck 
with so great a name, stood amazed : Land, he says, whoever 
thou art, address my father in person, and come under our 
roof as a guest. Then he grasped him by the hand, and clung 
closely to his right hand. Advancing, they enter the grove, 
and leave the river. Then with courteous accents JEneas 
addresses the king : Worthiest of the sons of Greece, to whom 
fortune hath led me to make my supplication, and to spread 
forth these boughs, with suppliant wreaths adorned ; I truly 
had no apprehension from your being a Grecian leader and an 
Arcadian, or from your being originally allied to the two sons 
of Atreus ; but my own uprightness, the holy oracles of the 
gods, the affinity of our ancestors, and your fame propagated 
over the earth, have bound you to me in friendship, and by 
fate urged me hither a willing guest. Dardanus, the first 
father and founder of the city Ilium r 10 born of Electra, the 
daughter of Atlas, as the Greeks record, to the Trojans steered 
his course : the mighty Atlas, who on his shoulder props the 
celestial orbs, gave to the world Electra. Your father is 
Mercury, whom bright Maia having conceived, on Cyllene's 

9 This phrase elegantly expresses the humble resources of the times 
The observation of Servius deserves notice, " libri veterum tradunt a ma< 
joribus sacrificando parsimoniam observatam esse." B. 

10 Ilium, the citadel of Troy, generally taken for the city itself, so 
named from Ilus, one of the Trojan kings. 



282 tfiNEID. b. viii, 149—179. 

frozen top brought forth. But Atlas, if we may give any 
credit to tradition, the same Atlas who supports the stars of 
heaven, begot Maia. Thus from one stock both our stems 
divide, Relying on these circumstances, I had not recourse 
to embassies, nor artfully employed preliminary means of 
sounding your inclination : myself and my own life I have 
exposed, and am come a suppliant to your threshold. The 
same Daunian nation, 11 which pursues you with cruel war, 
if they once expel us, nothing they presume will hinder them 
from entirely reducing all Hesperia under their yoke, and 
from being masters of the sea, both that above, and that which 
washes it below. 12 Take, and give pledges of faith. With 
us are stout hearts for war, with us are valiant souls, and youth 
tried and approved in action. 

iEneas said. Evander had all along with attention sur- 
veyed his mouth and eyes, and whole body as he spoke. Then 
thus he briefly replies: Most gallant of the Trojan race, how 
gladly do I receive and recognise you ! how well I recollect 
the words, the voice, and features of your great sire Anchises ! 
For I remember, that Priam, Laomedon's son, in his way to 
Salamis 13 to visit the realms of his sister Hesione, [continuing 
his progress] forward, visited likewise Arcadia's frozen coasts. 
Then manhood first shaded my cheek with down : I admired 
the Trojan chiefs ; Laomedon's son in particular 14 I admired ; 
but Anchises walked more majestic than all of them : my soul 
burned with youthful desire to accost the hero, and join hand 
in hand. I came up and fondly led him to the walls of Phe- 
neus. 15 He at departing gave me a splendid quiver, and 
Lycian arrows, a mantle interwoven with gold, and two 
bridles with golden bosses, of which my son Pallas is now 
possessed. Therefore I both join my right hand with you in 

11 Daunian nation : Daunus, a son of Pilumnus and Danae, and father 
of Turnus, came from Illyricum into Apulia, where he reigned over part 
of the country, from him called Daunia. 

12 i. e. the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas. B. 

13 Salamis, (Coulouri,) an island of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, near 
the coast of Attica. Hesione, a daughter of Laomedon, king of Troy, 
and sister to Priam. Hercules, having delivered her from a sea-monster 
to which she was exposed, gave her in marriage to Telamon, king of 
Salamis. 

14 " Ipsum " is emphatic, in opposition to " duces Teucros." B. 

15 Pheneus, (Phonia,) a town of Arcadia, near Mount Cyllene. 



B. vin 180—206. . ^NEID. 283 

league as you desire ; and, when first the morrow's light shall 
to earth return, I will dismiss you joyful with supplies, and 
aid you with my power. Meanwhile, since hither you are 
come as our friends, with willing minds celebrate with us this 
anniversary festival, which to defer is impiety, and even now 
accustom yourselves to the banquets of your allies. Thus 
having said, he orders the dishes and cups which had been 
removed, to be replaced, and himself plants the heroes on the 
grassy seat : and JEneas in chief he compliments with a couch 
and the fur of a shaggy lion, and invites him to share his 
maple throne. Then with earnestness the chosen youths and 
priest of the altar bring forward the roasted joints of the 
bullocks, heap in canisters the gifts of laboured Ceres, 16 and 
dispense the joys of Bacchus. iEneas, and at the same time 
the Trojan youth, feast on the chine and hallowed entrails of 
an entire ox. 

As soon as hunger was assuaged, and the lust of eating 
stayed, king Evander says : Not superstition vain, and ignor- 
ant of the ancient gods, hath imposed on us these solemn rites, 
these banquets in due form, this altar to so great a deity • 
from cruel dangers saved, my Trojan guest, we perform these 
rites, 17 and renew merited honours. Now first observe this 
rock suspended on crags ; how the huge piles are scattered 
far abroad, and the mountainous abode stands desolate, and 
the cliffs have dragged down mighty ruin [in their fall]. 
Here, in a vast recess, far removed from sight, was a cave, 
which the hideous figure of the but half -human Cacus 18 pos- 
sessed, inaccessible to the sunbeams ; and ever with recent 
bloodshed the pavement smoked ; and affixed to the haughty 
entrance hung the heads of men all pale with piteous gore. 
Vulcan was this monster's father ; whose sooty flames belch- 
ing from his mouth, he stalked with bulk enormous. Time 
at length to us also brought the wished-for aid and presence 
of a god: for Hercules, the illustrious avenger, seasonably 
arrived, proud from the death and spoils of three-bodied 
Geryon ; and victorious drove his stately bulls this way : and 

16 i. e. " of Ceres wrought for use," a periphrasis for "bread." B. 

17 Anthon renders : " we do all this." But it seems better to give 
" facimus " its sacrificial sense. B. 

18 Cacus, the son of Vulcan and Medusa, a notorious robber, slain by 
Hercules. 



204 ^NEID. b. viii. 207-242. 

the heifers possessed the valley and the river. But the mind 
of Cacus, maddened by the Furies, lest any villany or fraudu- 
lent practice might be undevised or unattempted, he abstracts 
from their stalls four bullocks of exquisite make, and as many 
heifers of form surpassing: and these, lest there should be 
any prints of their feet direct, having dragged towards the 
cave by the tail, and hurried along with the traces of their 
way reversed, he concealed in his gloomy den. No signs 19 
led the searcher to the cave. Meanwhile, when now the hero 
was moving from their stalls his full-fed herds, and preparing 
to be gone, the heifers, at parting, began to low, the whole 
grove was filled with their plaintive notes, and the hills with 
clamorous din were cleft. One of the heifers returned the sound, 
and pent up in the spacious cave rebellowed, and frustrated the 
hope of Cacus. Then, indeed, from his black gall the hero's in- 
dignation kindled into fury : in his hand he snatches up arms, 
and his oak ponderous with knots, and with speed seeks the 
summit of the airy mountain. Then first our men beheld Cacus 
dismayed, and by his eyes betraying confusion. Instantly he 
flies swifter than the east w^nd, and seeks the cave: fear 
added wings to his feet. Soon as he had shut himself in, and, 
bursting the chains in haste, let down the enormous rock, 
which, by iron 20 wrought by his father's art, was suspended, 
and on bolts relying made fast the gates ; lo ! the Tirynthian 
hero transported with fury was upon him, and, examining 
every passage, hither and thither rolled his eyes, gnashing 
with his teeth. Boiling with ire, he thrice surveys the whole 
Aventine mount ; thrice in vain essays the gates of rock ; 
thrice in the vale fatigued he sat down to rest. A sharp flinty 
rock stood forth, with broken cliffs in the points around ; on 
the ridge of the cave rose, towering to the sight, a convenient 
shelter for the nests of inauspicious birds. This, where, 
bending forward with its brow, it overhung the river on the 
left, [the hero,] opposite to it on the right, with strained effort 
shook, and from the deep roots uptorn disjoined; then on a 
sudden impelled it : with which impulse the sky in its wide 
extent resounds, the banks leap hither and thither, and the 
affrighted river runs back. And now the den and spacious 
hall of Cacus, bared of covering, appeared, and his gloomy 

19 Because the foot-prints pointed the wrong way. B. 

20 I consider this as an hendiadys. B. 



u. vin. 243—272. ^NEID. 285 

caverns in their inmost recesses were laid open ; just as if by 
some violence the earth, in her deep recesses yawning wide, 
should unlock the infernal mansions, and disclose those pale 
realms abhorred by the gods, and from above the hideous gulf 
be seen, and the ghosts be terrified at the light 21 darted in 
upon them. Him, therefore, suddenly surprised in the unex- 
pected light, imprisoned in his excavated rock, and in strange 
manner braying, Alcides from above galls with darts, calls 
every weapon to his aid, and plies him with boughs of trees 
and ponderous stones. 22 But he (for now no refuge from the 
danger remains) from his jaws vomits up vast quantities of 
smoke, wondrous to tell ! and involves the cave in pitchy 
vapour, snatching all power of sight from the eye ; and deep 
in his cave shoots up in wreaths a night of smoke, inter- 
mingling lire with darkness. Alcides in his rage could not 
endure this, but with an impetuous spring threw himself 
amidst the flame, where the smoke drives its waves thickest, 
and the capacious den fluctuates with pitchy vapour. Here, 
in his darkened cell, he seizes Cacus disgorging unavailing 
flames, grasping him like a knot ; then, griping fast, keeps 
choking him until his eyes start from their sockets, and his 
throat is drained of blood. Forthwith, the doors being 
wrenched, the grim mansion is laid open ; the heifers that had 
been filched away, and the stolen effects abjured, 23 are exposed 
to the sky ; and the deformed carcass is dragged forth by the 
feet. They are unable to satiate their curiosity with gazing 
on his haggard eyes, his countenance, and the breast of the 
half-savage shaggy with bristly hair, and the extinguished 
fires in his throat. From that time the honours [of the hero] 
have been celebrated, and posterity with joy have observed 
the day : and Potitius, 24 the first founder, and the Pinarian 
family, the guardian of this institution sacred to Hercules, 
erected this altar in the grove, which shall both be styled by 
us the Great, and the Great shall be for ever. 23 Wherefore 

21 Compare Silius v. 618, " Manesque profundi Antiquum expavere 
diem." B. 

28 Literally, "millstones." B. 

23 i. e. which he had denied the possession of, on oath. B. 

24 Potitius and Pinarius, Arcadians who came with Evander to Italy, 
and were intrusted with the sacrifices of Hercules. 

25 Concerning this altar Livy puts the following words in the mouth <•{ 
Evander, addressing himself to Hercules : " Jove nate, Hercules salve, 



286 .ENEID. b. viii. 273—295. 

come, O youths, in celebrating virtue so illustrious, encircle 
your locks with a garland, and stretch forth your goblets in 
your hands, invoke our common god, and offer the wine with 
good will. He said; when with its Herculean shade the 
poplar of varying hue both decked his locks, and with its leaves 
entwined hung down ; and a sacred goblet filled his right 
hand. Quickly all with joy pour libations on the table, and 
supplicate the gods. Meanwhile the sphere of day declining, 
evening draws nearer on ; and now the priests, and Potitius 
at their head, marched in procession, clad in skins, according 
to custom, and bore flaming torches. They renew the feast, 
and introduce the grateful offerings of the second service, 26 
and heap the altars with loaded chargers. Then round the 
altars smoking with perfumes, the Salii 27 amidst songs ad- 
vance, having their temples bound with poplar boughs ; [in 
two bands they divide,] the one a choir of youths, the other of 
aged men; who celebrate the praises of Hercules and his 
deeds in verse : how with his hand he slew the first [sent] 
monsters of his step -mother [Juno], and squeezing strangled 
her two snakes ; how in war the same hero overthrew illus- 
trious cities, both Troy and (Echalia ; 28 how, under king Eu- 
rystheus, 29 by the destination of unfriendly Juno, he endured a 
thousand grievous toils. Thou, invincible, dost with thy arm 
[subdue] the cloud-born, double-membered Centaurs, Hylseus 
and Pholus ; thou subduest Cretan monsters, and the huge 
overgrown lion under the rock of Nemea. 30 For fear of thee 

te mihi mater veridica interpres Deum aucturum coelestium mimerum 
cecinit, tibique aram hie dicatum iri, quam opulentissima in terris gens 
maximam vocet, tuoque ritu colat." The reason of the name is given by 
Dionysius, that this being the altar whereon Hercules himself offered the 
tithes of his spoils, it became on that account the object of chief veneration, 
and was called Maxima to distinguish it from the numerous other altars 
which that hero had in Italy. 

26 i. e. the evening repast, as shown by Weichart. The other had taken 
place at mid-day. B. 

27 Salii, an order of priests at Rome, who had the charge of the sacred 
shields called Ancilia, which they carried every year, on the first of 
March, in a solemn procession round the walls of Rome, dancing and 
singing praises to the god Mars. 

28 QSchalia, a country of Laconia in Peloponnesus, with a town of the 
6ame name, where Eurytus reigned, and which was destroyed by Hercules. 

29 Eurystheus, the brother and task-master of Hercules. 

30 Nemea, a town of Argolis in Peloponnesus, near which Hercules per 
formed his first labour by killing the celebrated Nemean lion. 



n. vni. 296—326. iENEID. 287 

the Stygian lakes, for fear of thee the porter of hell did trem- 
ble, cowering down in his bloody den upon his half- gnawed 
bones : nor did any forms throw thee into consternation ; not 
Typhosus 31 himself, of towering height, with arms in hand : 
thee, not perplexed, the Lernaean snake, many-headed monster, 
around beset. Hail, undoubted offspring of Jove, added to 
the gods as a glory : visit both us and these thy sacred rites 
with thy auspicious presence. Such deeds they celebrate in 
song : above all, they subjoin the den of Cacus, and himself 
breathing flames. The whole grove rings with the din, and 
the hills resound. 

Then, having finished the divine service, all hie back to the 
5Uty. The king, oppressed with age, set forward ; and, as he 
Jvalked along, had JEneas to accompany him, and his son by 
his side, and with various discourse relieved [the tediousness 
of] the way. ^Eneas admires, and turns his rolling 32 eyes 
around on every object ; is charmed with the different places ; 
and inquires and learns the several monuments of the men of 
antiquity. 

Then king Evander, the founder of the Roman power, [thus 
began] : These groves the native Fauns and Nymphs pos- 
sessed, and a race of men sprung from the trunks of trees and 
stubborn oak ; who had neither laws nor refinement ; knew 
neither to yoke the steer, nor to gather wealth, nor to use their 
acquisitions with moderation ; but the branches, and hunting, 
a rough source of sustenance, supplied them with food. From 
the ethereal sky Saturn first came, flying from the arms of 
Jove, and an exile dispossessed of his realms. He formed 
into society a race undisciplined and dispersed among the high 
mountains, and introduced laws ; and chose to have the coun- 
try named Latium, because in these regions he had lurked se- 
cure. Under his reign was the golden age which they 
celebrate : in such undisturbed tranquillity he ruled his sub- 
jects ; till by degrees an age more depraved, and of an inferior 

31 Typhoeus, a famous giant, son of Tartarus and Terra, said to have 
had a hundred heads like those of a serpent or a dragon. He made war 
upon the gods, but Jupiter put him to flight with his thunderbolts, and 
crushed him under Mount iEtna, in Sicily, or, according to some, undei 
the island Inarime (Ischia). ^ 

32 " faciles," i. a easily bending and turning in aff&irections. B 



288 ^JNEID. b. viii. 327—3/57. 

hue, and the fury of war, and love of gain, 33 succeeded. 
Then came the Ausonian bands, and the Sicilian nations ; and 
the Saturnian land often changed its name. Then [came a 
succession of] kings, and fierce Tybris of gigantic make, from 
whom we Italians in after times named the river Tiber ; an- 
cient Albula lost its true name. Me, from my country driven, 
and tracing the remote tracks of the sea, almighty fortune and 
uncontrollable destiny fixed in these regions : and the awful 
predictions of my mother, the nymph Carmentis, 34 and the god 
Apollo by his authority urged me [hither]. 

Scarcely had he spoken, when setting forward he shows 
him next both the altar, and the gate filled by a Roman 35 
name Carmentalis, which they record to be the ancient memo- 
rial in honour of the prophetic nymph Carmentis, who first fore- 
told the future grandeur of the ^ZEnean race, and the renown of 
Pallanteum. Next he points out the spacious grove which 
Romulus reduced into a sanctuary, and under a cold rock the 
Lupercal, 36 so called, according to the Arcadian manner, from 
Lycsean Pan. He likewise shows the grove of Argiletum, 37 
sacred [to Argus] ; and calls the place to witness his inno- 
cence, and relates the death of Argus his guest. He leads him 
next to the Tarpeian Rock and the Capitol, now of gold, once 
rough and horrid with wild bushes. Even then the religious 
horrors of the place awed the minds of the timorous swains ; 
*ven then they revered the wood and rock. This grove, says 
he, this wood-topped hill, a god inhabits, but what god is un- 
certain : the Arcadians believe they have seen Jove himself, 
when often with his right hand he shook the blackening segis, 
and roused the clouds of thunder. Farther, [says he,] yon 
two towns you see with their walls demolished, the remains 
and monuments of ancient heroes : this city father Janus, that 

33 Literally, " of having," as in Hor. Ep. i. 7, 85. So "habendi 
fames," Pacatus Paneg. 25; " finis habendi," Prudent. Hamart. 255. B, 

34 Carmentis, a prophetess of Arcadia, mother of Evander, with whom 
she came to Italy. One of the gates of Rome was named after her. 

35 But Wagner and Anthon read " Romani," I think, with little rea- 
son. B. 

36 "Lupercal, a place at the foot of Mount Aventine, sacred to Pan, 
whose festivals, called Lupercalia, were celebrated annually. 

57 Argiletum, a place at Rome near the Palatium, where tradesmen 
had their shops. 



B. vin. 357—383. JENEID 289 

Saturnus built ; the one was named Janiculum, 38 the other 
Saturnia. In such mutual talk they came up to the palace 
of poor Evander ; and in [that place where now are] the 
Roman forum and magnificent streets, they beheld around 
herds of cattle lowing. Soon as they reached his abode, 
This threshold, he says, the victorious 39 Alcides entered; 
him this palace received: dare then, my guest, to under- 
value magnificence, and do you too mould yourself [into a 
temper] becoming a god, and come not disgusted with these 
our mean accommodations. He said, and under the roof of 
his narrow mansion conducted the magnanimous JEneas, and 
set him down to rest on a bed of leaves, and the fur of a Li- 
byan bear. 

Night comes on apace, and with her dusky wings mantles 
the earth. Meanwhile Yenus, the parent-goddess, not without 
cause alarmed in mind, and disturbed both by the threats 
and fierce uproar of the Laurentines, addresses Vulcan, 40 and 
in her husband's golden bedchamber thus begins, and by 
her accents breathes into him love divine : While the Grecian 
kings by war were bringing fated Troy to desolation, and its 
towers doomed to fall by hostile flames, not any succour to the 
wretches, nor arms of thy art and power, I craved ; nor, my 
dearest spouse, was I willing to employ you or your labours 
in vain ; though I both owed much to the sons of Priam, and 
often mourned the severe sufferings of iEneas. Now, by 
Jove's command, he hath settled on the coast of the Rutulians : 
therefore I the self-same [fond wife] appear as a suppliant, 
and implore arms from thy divinity to me adorable, a mother 
for a son. Thee the daughter of Nereus, thee the wife of Ti- 

38 Janiculum, one of the seven hills at Rome, on which Janus built a 
town of the same name. Saturnia, an ancient town of Italy, supposed to 
have been built by Saturn on the Tarpeian Rock. 

39 From this circumstance Hercules probably derived his surname of 
" Victor/' having been received into " parva regia, sed summa religione," 
as Mamertinus says, Pan. 1. See Macrob. Sat. iii. 6. B. 

40 Vulcan, the son of Jupiter and Juno, or of Juno alone, and the hus- 
band of Venus, was the god of fire, and the patron of all artists who 
worked in iron and metals. He is said to have been cast down from 
heaven, and by his fall in the island of Lemnos, to have broke his leg, and 
ever after remained lame of one foot. The Cyclops in Sicily were his 
workmen, and with him they fabricated, in his forges, which were sup- 
posed to be under Mount ^Etna, not only the thunderbolts of Jupiter, 
but also arms for the gods and the most celebrated heroes. 

u 



290 



^NEID. b. viii. 384—415 



thonus, by tears could persuade. See what nations combine, 
what towns, having shut up their gates, whet their swords 
against me, and for the extirpation of my people ! The god- 
dess said, and, [throwing] her snowy arms around him, 
in soft embrace caresses him, hesitating : suddenly he caught 
the wonted flame ; and the accustomed warmth pierced his 
marrow, and ran thrilling through his trembling bones: just 
as when at times, with forked thunder burst, a chinky stream 
of lire in flashy lightning shoots athwart the skies. This his 
spouse, well pleased with her wiles, and conscious of her 
charms, perceived. 

Then father [Yulcan], fast bound in eternal love, thus 
speaks : Why hast thou recourse to far-fetched reasons ? whi- 
ther, goddess, hath thy confidence in me fled ? Hadst thou 
been under the like concern before, then too it had been a 
righteous thing in me, [at thy desire,] to arm the Trojans. 
Nor did almighty father Jove, or the Fates, 41 forbid that 
Troy should stand, or Priam survive for ten years more. 
And now if war you meditate, and this be your resolution ; 
whatever zeal in my art I can promise; whatever can be 
done by steel or liquid electrum, 42 as far as the power of fire 
and breathing engines reach, [you may depend on me ;] for- 
bear by solicitation to bring your power in question. Hav- 
ing spoken these words, he gave her the wished embrace, and, 
on the bosom of his spouse dissolved away, courted soft repose 
to every limb. 

Then, soon as the first [interval of] rest, now that the mid- 
career of night had rolled away, had chased away sleep [from 
his eyes] ; what time the housewife, whose chief concern it is 
to earn her living by the distaff and poor handiwork, 43 awakes 
the heaped-up embers and the dormant fires, adding night to 
her labour, and by the lighted tapers employs her maids in 
their long tasks, that chaste she may preserve her husband's 
bed, and bring up her little ones : not otherwise, nor at that 
time less industrious, the mighty god of fire rises from the soft 
couch to his mechanic labours. 

41 The ancients supposed that the will of the Fates could not be ulti- 
mately overcome, but that its execution might be delayed. See Sor- 
vius. B. 

4 - A mixture of gold and silver. B. 

43 " The loom yielding but a scanty reward." Anthon. B. 



b. viii. 416-451. JENEID 291 

Near the side of Sicily and iEolian Lipari 44 an island is 
upraised of steep ascent, with smoking rocks ; under which a 
den, and the caves of iEtna, eaten out by the forges of the 
Cyclops, thunder, and from the anvils the sturdy strokes in 
echoing groans resound, the bars of steel hiss in the caverns, 
and the fire pants in the furnaces : Vulcan's habitation, and the 
land Vulcanium called. Hither then he of fiery power de- 
scended from the lofty sky. The Cyclops in their capacious 
cave were working the steel, Brontes, and Steropes, and 
naked-limbed Pyracmon. In their hands half-formed, with one 
part already polished, was a thunderbolt, [such as those], which 
in profusion the eternal father from all quarters of the sky 
hurls on the earth : the other part unfinished remained. 
Three shafts they had added of the wreathed hail, three of 
watery cloud, three of glaring fire and winged wind. Now 
they were mingling in the work alarming flashes, noise and 
terror, and the wrath of heaven with its vengeful flames. In 
another part they were hastening forward a chariot and nimble 
wheels of Mars, by which he uprouses men and cities ; and 
were polishing amain the tremendous aegis, the armour of en- 
raged Pallas, with serpent's scales of gold, and the snakes in 
mutual folds entwined, and (to be worn on the breast of the 
goddess) the Gorgon's self, rolling her eyes 45 after decapi- 
tation. 

Away with all, he says, ye iEtnean Cyclops, and set aside 
your begun labours, and hither turn your minds. Arms for a 
valiant hero must be forged ; now it is requisite to ply your 
strength, now your nimble hands, now all your masterly skill. 
Shake off all delay. Nor more he said, and all instantly be- 
gan to work, and equally the labour shared. Brass and mines 
of gold in rivulets flow ; and wounding steel in the capacious 
furnace melts. They mark out the form of a spacious shield, 
alone sufficient against all the weapons of the Latins, and orbs 
in orbs seven-fold involve. Some with the puffing bellows 
receive and explode the air by turns; others dip the sputter- 
ing metals in the trough ; the cave groans with the incumbent 

44 Lipari, anciently the iEolian Islands, on the northern coast of Sicily . 
they are evidently of volcanic origin. 

45 The eyes moved by a mechanical contrivance, according to "Wagner. 
But I should simply understand the expression of the eye as meant. B. 

u 2 



292 ^JNEID. b. vni. 452—489 

anvils. They with vast force alternately lift their arms in 
equal time, and with the griping pincers turn the mass. 

While in the ^Eolian regions the Lemnian sire is urging on 
these works, the cheering light, and the morning songs of 
birds under his roof, rouse Evander from his humble mansion. 
The veteran arises, and in his tunic clothes his limbs, and 
binds the Tuscan sandals round his feet ; then to his side and 
shoulders girds his Arcadian sword, doubling back [on the 
right shoulder] a panther's skin that hung down from his left. 
Two guardian-dogs too from the lofty gate march forth, and 
accompany their master's steps. The hero, mindful of their 
conversation, and the service he had promised, hies to the 
apartment and recess of his guest JEneas. [Meanwhile] 
JEneas no less early was on his way. With the one his son 
Pallas, with the other Achates came in company. At meeting 
they join hands, seat themselves in the midst of the court, and 
at length enjoy unrestrained conversation. The king thus 
first [begins] : Most mighty leader of the Trojans, during 
whose life I truly will never admit that the power and realms 
of Troy are overthrown ; small are our abilities to support the 
war in proportion to so great a name : on the one hand we 
are bounded by the Tuscan river [Tiber] ; on the other hand 
the Rutulians press upon us, and beset our walls around with 
clashing arms. But I intend to join with you mighty nations 
and camps rich and royally magnificent, which saving relief 
unexpected fortune opens to our view: hither you come in- 
vited by the Fates. Not far from this spot stands inhabited 
the city of Agylla, 46 of ancient foundation, where heretofore 
the Lydian nation, illustrious in war, planted a settlement on 
the Tuscan mountains. This city, having flourished for many 
years, Mezentius at last came to rule with imperious sway and 
cruel arms. Why should I mention his unutterable barbari- 
ties ? or why the tyrant's horrid deeds ? May the gods re- 
compense them on his own head, and on his race ! He even 
bound to the living the bodies of the dead, joining together 
hands to hands, and face to face, a kind of torture : and [the 
victims] pining away with gore and putrefaction in this 
loathed embrace, he thus with lingering death destroyed. But 
at length his subjects, weary [of his cruelties], in arms around 
46 Agylla, afterwards called Caere, a town of Etruria, 



b. vni. 490—523. JENEID. 293 

beset both the tyrant himself raging past utterance, and all 
his house : they assassinate his adherents, hurl flames against 
his roof. He, amidst the massacre making his escape, flies 
for shelter to the territories of the Rutulians, and finds pro- 
tection from the arms of Turnus, his hospitable friend. 
Therefore all Etruria ros with just fury ; and the people by 
present war redemand their king for punishment. Over these 
thousands, JEneas, I will assign you leader. For all along 
the shore the vessels ranged in thick array resound with 
clamour ; and crave to urge on the banners. Them an aged 
soothsayer restrains, this oracle in prophetic strains deliver- 
ing : Ye chosen youths of Lydia, the flower and excellence of 
ancient heroes, whom just indignation urges against the foe, 
and Mezentius fires with due resentment ; no native of Italy 
is destined to subdue that powerful nation : make choice of 
foreign leaders. Then, overawed by the declaration of the 
gods, the Tuscan army, respiting their fury, encamped on 
this plain. Tarchon 47 himself hath sent ambassadors with 
the royal crown and sceptre, and to me commends these en- 
signs ; [imploring me] to repair to the camp, and assume the 
Tuscan administration. But life with frozen blood benumbed, 
and worn out with years, and my capacity for heroic deeds 
superannuated, deny me empire. My son I would urge to it 
were it not that, being of mixed race by reason of a Sabine 
mother, he derived a portion of his country from this land. Do 
you, most gallant leader of the Trojans and Italians, to whose 
years and lineage also fate is indulgent, you whom the oracles 
invite, enter upon the task. Him too, my hope and solace, 
Pallas, to thee I will join ; under thee his master let him prac- 
tise to endure warfare, and the laborious service of Mars, be 
spectator of thy deeds, and from his earliest years make thee 
the object of his admiration. To him I will give two hun- 
dred Arcadian horsemen, the chosen strength of the youth ; 
and as many more will Pallas give thee in his own name. 

Thus he had scarcely spoke, when JEneas, the offspring of 
Anchises, and trusty Achates, held their eyes fixed on the 
ground, and with heavy hearts began to revolve many hard 
thoughts, 48 had not Cytherea displayed a sign in the open air : 

47 Tarchon, an Etrurian chief, who assisted iEneas against the Rutulians. 
4( * Cf. Propert. i. 15, 1, " Saepe ego multa tuae levitatis dura time- 
bam." B. 



294 ^ENEID. B. viii. 524—554 

for unexpectedly a flash of lightning, darted from the sky, 
came with a peal ; 49 and suddenly all things seemed to threaten 
ruin, and the blast of the Tuscan trumpet rattled through the 
skies. Upwards they gaze : again and again in dreadful peals 
it thunders ; in a serene quarter of the heavens, among the 
clouds they observe arms blaze athwart the clear expanse, and 
clashed peal with thunder. The rest were astounded with 
amazement ; but the Trojan hero knew the sound and pro- 
mised signs of his goddess-mother. Then [to Evander] he 
addressed his speech : By no means, my hospitable friend, by 
no means be anxious to explore what crisis these prodigies 
portend : I am called by heaven. My divine parent foretold 
that she was to send this signal, if war should assail me, and 
that she would bring Vulcan-wrought arms through the aerial 
regions to my aid. Ah ! what havoc awaits the hapless Lau- 
rentines ! what ample satisfaction shalt thon, O Turnus, give 
me ! what numerous shields, and helmets, and bodies of gal- 
lant heroes, shalt thou, father Tiber, roll down thy streams ! 
Let them challenge our armies, and violate their leagues. 

Having said these words, he raised himself from his lofty 
throne : and first of all he wakes the dormant altars with fires 
in honour of Hercules, and visits with joy the Lar, 50 whom 
yesterday he had first worshipped, and the little household 
gods : with accustomed rites he offers a sacrifice of chosen 
ewes; in like manner Evander, in like manner the Trojan 
youth. After this he repairs to the ships, and revisits his 
friends ; from whose number he chooses out such as excelled 
in valour, to accompany him to the war : the rest by the de- 
scending stream are borne along, and without effort glide 
down with the current of the river, to bring Ascanius tidings 
of his father, and of the affairs in hand. The Trojans, re- 
pairing to the Tuscan territories, are supplied with steeds : 
for ^Eneas they led forth one distinguished from the rest, 
which a lion's tawny hide, shining before with gilded claws, 
completely covers. 

Suddenly through the little city, the rumour, made public, 

49 D'Orville, Critic. Vann. p. 594, compares Quintus Cal. xiv. 457, 
olov ore crrepoTrrJGLV hirifipkjxti aGirerog alOrjp. B. 

50 Lar : the Lares were two in number, sons of Mercury and Lara, one 
of the Naiads. The Romans paid them divine honours, ard they pre- 
sided over houses and families. 



B. viii. 555—591. ^ENEID. 295 

flies, that a band of horse were swiftly marching to the court of 
the Tuscan king. Through fear the matrons redouble their 
vows ; and the nearer to the danger, the more the terror grows, 
and the image of Mars appears enlarged. Then father Evander, 
grasping the hand [of his son] as he was going away, clings 
to him, weeping beyond measure, and utters these words : Oh 
that Jupiter would recall my past years! [or that I were now] 
what I was when, under the very walls of Praeneste, I mowed 
down the foremost ranks, and victorious set heaps of shields 
on fire, and with this right hand sent king Herilus 51 down to 
Tartarus ; to whom at his birth, dreadful to relate, his mother 
Feronia had given three lives, and triple arms to wield ; thrice 
by death was he to be overthrown : whom nevertheless this 
right hand then bereft of all these lives, and stripped of as 
many suits of armour ! nothing now, my son, should part me 
from your loved embrace : nor had ever our neighbour Mezen- 
tius, insulting over this person of mine, by the sword effected 
so many cruel deaths, bereaved the city of so many inhabitants. 
But, O ye powers, and thou Jupiter, great ruler of the gods, 
compassionate, I pray, an Arcadian king, and hear a father's 
prayers ; if your providence divine, if the Fates reserve Pal- 
las for me in safety, if I live destined to see him again, and 
to have a meeting with him, I pray for life ; I will submit to 
endure any hardship whatever. But if, O fortune, thou 
threatenest him with some disaster not to be named, now, oh ! 
now, let me break off my cruel life, while my cares are hover- 
ing in suspense, while I have hope of the future, [however] 
uncertain ; while thee, dear boy, my late, my only joy, I hold 
in my embrace : lest more mournful tidings wound my ears. 
These words the father poured forth at the final parting : his 
attendants bear him to the palace fainting away. 

And now the horse had gone forth by the expanded gates : 
among the foremost -ZEneas and his faithful Achates ; then 
other peers of Troy. Pallas himself, in the centre of his 
troop, appears conspicuous in his mantling robe and painted 
arms ; such as when, bathed in the ocean's waves, Lucifer, 
whom Yenus loves beyond the other starry lights, hath dis- 
played his holy visage in the heaven, and dispersed the dark- 

51 Herilus, king of Praeneste, was son of Feronia, the goddess of woods 
and orchards : as he is said to have received three lives from his mother, 
lie was killed three times by Evander. 



?96 ^NEID b. viii. 592—625. 

ness. On the walls the timorous matrons stknd, and follow 
with their eyes the dusty cloud, and troops gleaming with 
brass. Through the thickets, where nearest lies the boundary 
of their way, they march in arms. Their acclamations rise ; 
and, a squadron formed, the hoof beats with the trampling 
din the mouldering plain. 

Near the cold river of Caere 52 is a spacious grove, sacred 
all around by the religion of the fathers ; hollow hills on 
every side have enclosed, and encompass the grove with 
gloomy fir. There is a tradition, that to Sylvanus, god of 
the fields and flocks, the ancient Pelasgi, 53 who were once the 
first possessors of the Latin territories, consecrated this grove 
and a festival- day. Not far from this, Tarcho and the Tus- 
cans kept their camp, defended by the ground ; and now from 
the hill the whole legion could be surveyed, and had pitched 
their tents upon the spacious plains. Hither father iEneas 
and his youthful band, chosen for the war, advance, and 
fatigued they tend their horses and themselves. 

Meanwhile the goddess Yenus in bright beauty among the 
ethereal clouds, drew nigh, bearing her gifts ; and soon as at 
a distance she espied her son in a recluse valley, apart by 
the cold river, she voluntarily presented herself, and addressed 
him in these words : Behold, my son, the presents finished by 
my consort's promised skill ; that so this instant you need not 
demur to challenge either the insolent Laurentines or fierce 
Turnus to the combat. Cytherea said, and rushed into the 
embraces of her son: under an oak, full in his view, she 
placed the radiant arms. He, overjoyed with the presents of 
the goddess, and such signal honour, gazes on them with in- 
satiable fondness, and rolls his eyes over them one by one ; he 
admires, and in his hands or arms shifts about the helmet 
terrible with its crest and shooting flames, and the sword 
fraught with death, the corslet stiff with brass, immense, of 
sanguine hue ; as when the azure cloud by the sunbeams grows 
more and more inflamed, and shines afar ; then the polished 
greaves of electrum and gold refined, the spear and the tex- 
ture of the shield beyond expression. There the god of fiery 

52 Caere, anciently Agylla, a city of Etruria, once the capital of the 
whole country, situated on a small river east of Rome. 

53 Pelasgi, the ancient inhabitants of Greece, supposed to be one of tb-; 
most ancient people in the world. 



b. VIII. 626—651. <ENEID. 297 

power, not unskilled of prophecies, or ignorant of futurity, had 
represented the Italian history and triumphs of the Romans ; 
there all the descendants of the future race from Ascanius, 
and their battles fought in order. There, too, he had figured 
the fostering wolf lying in the verdant cave of Mars : the twin 
boys, hanging about her dugs, to play, and fearless suck their 
dam ; while she, with tapering neck reclined, fondly licked 
them by turns, and moulded their bodies with her tongue. 
Not far from this he had added Rome, and the Sabine virgins 
lawlessly ravished from th% assembly of the circus at the great 
Circensian 54 games, and suddenly a new war bursting upon 
the sons of Rome, and aged Tatius, 55 and the rigid Cures. 
Next the same princes, now that mutual hostilities are laid 
aside, sheathed in armour, and with the goblets in their hands, 
stood before Jove's altars, and, having sacrificed a sow, struck 
a league. Not far from thence rapid chariots had torn Metius 56 
limb from limb asunder, (but thou, Alban, shouldst have ad- 
hered to thy stipulations,) and Tullus was dragging the 
traitor's entrails through the wood ; and the bushes, sprinkled 
with his blood, were dripping wet. Here, too, Porsenna 57 
was commanding [the Romans] to receive expelled Tarquini- 
us, and invested the city with close siege. The Romans in 
defence of liberty were rushing on the sword. Him [Por- 
senna] you might have seen like one enraged, and like one 
breathing threats, because Codes had dared to beat down the 
bridge, and Clcelia, 58 having burst her chains, swam across 

54 Circensian games were first established by Romulus, and performed 
in the circus at Rome. The Romans, having invited their neighbours 
the Sabines to the celebration of these games, forcibly carried away all 
their females who had attended. 

55 Tatius, king of Cures among the Sabines, made war against the 
Romans after the rape of the Sabine women. Peace having been made 
between the two nations, Tatius shared the royal authority with Romulusc 

56 Metius, dictator of Alba in the reign of Tullus Hostilius. He be- 
came subject to the Romans by the combat of the Horatii and Curiatii, 
but afterwards proving faithless, Tullus put him to death by placing him 
between two chariots, which were drawn by four horses different ways. 

67 Porsenna, king of Etruria, who made war upon the Romans in 
favour of Tarquin, and attempted in vain to replace him on the throne. 
Codes, (Pub. Horat.) a noble Roman, who greatly signalized himself by 
alone opposing for a time the whole army of Porsenna. 

58 Clcelia, a Roman virgin, who having been given with other maidens 
as hostages to Porsenna, escaped from her confinement, and swam across 
the Tiber to Rome. 



298 JSNE1D. B. vin. 652— Go2 

the river. On the summit [of the shield] Manlius, 59 guardian 
of the Tarpeian tower, before the temple stood, and defended 
the lofty Capitol; and the palace, as newly thatched with 
Romulean straw, appeared rough. And here a goose in silver, 
fluttering athwart the gilded galleries, gave warning that the 
Gauls were just at hand : the Gauls were advancing along the 
thickets, and were seizing the fort, protected by the darkness 
and benefit of dusky night. Of gold their tresses were, and 
of gold their vestments ; in striped mantelets they shine ; then 
their milk-white necks are girt with gold : two Alpine javelins 
each in his hand brandishes, having their bodies protected with 
long bucklers. Here he had embossed the dancing Salii, and 
the naked priests of Pan, the caps tufted with wool, and the 
shields that fell from heaven : chaste matrons in soft carriages 
were conducting the sacred pageants through the city. To 
these in remoter prospect he likewise adds the Tartarean man- 
sions, Pluto's profound realms, the sufferings of the damned ; 
and thee, Catiline, 60 suspended from a threatening rock, and 
trembling at the faces of the Furies ; and the good apart [from 
the wicked, with] Cato 61 dispensing laws to them. Amidst 
these scenes the image of the swelling ocean was widely dif- 
fused in gold ; but the seas foamed with hoary waves, and all 
around conspicuous in silver the wheeling dolphins swept the 
seas with their tails, and cut the tide. In the midst were 
to be seen fleets with brazen prows, the fight of Actium ; 62 
and you could discern Leucate all in a ferment with the 
marshalled war, and the billows brightly displayed in gold. 
On one side is Augustus Csesar conducting the Italians to the 
engagement, with the senators and people, the domestic dei- 
ties, and the great gods, standing on the lofty stern ; whose 
auspicious temples dart forth two flames, and on whose crest 
his father's star is displayed. In another part Agrippa, 63 

59 Manlius, (Marcus,) a celebrated Roman, surnamed Capitolinus, foi 
his gallant defence of the Capitol against the Gauls under Brennus 
Manlius was afterwards accused of ambitious designs, and having been 
condemned, he was thrown down from the Tarpeian Rock. 

60 Catiline, a noble Roman, but cruel, and of the most depraved habits. 
He conspired against the liberties of his country, and perished in battle, 
B. c. 63. 

61 Cato the major is meant. 

62 Actium, the seat of the final victory of Augustus. 

63 Agrippa, a celebrated Roman, who favoured the interest of Augustus 



n. yui 682-706. ^ENEID. 299 

with winds and gods propitious, stands aloft 64 leading his 
squadron ; for whom, proud badge of warfare, his brows are 
adorned with a naval crown's refulgent beak. On the other 
side victorious Antony, 65 with barbarian supplies and various 
troops, brings up with him, from the nations of the morning, 
and the coasts of the Red Sea, Egypt, 66 the strength of the 
east, and Bactra, the boundary of his empire ; and him fol- 
lows, oh foul disgrace ! his Egyptian spouse Cleopatra. 67 All 
are rushing on together, and the whole watery plain foams 
convulsed with the labouring oars and trident-beaks. They 
make for the deep : you would have imagined, that the Cy- 
clades uptorn were floating on the main, or lofty mountains 
encountering mountains : with such force the warriors in their 
turreted ships urge on the attack. From their hands flaming 
balls of tow, and from missile engines the winged steel is 
flung : Neptune's fields redden with the first slaughter. In 
the midst the queen rouses her squadrons with her country's 
sistrum ; nor as yet regards the two snakes behind her. 68 Her 
monstrous gods of every form, and barking Anubis, 69 opposed 
to Neptune, Venus, and Minerva, are wielding their weapons. 
In the midst of the combat Mars sculptured in iron storms, 
and the grim Furies from the sky; and Discord with her 
mantle rent stalks well pleased, whom Bellona follows with 
her bloody scourge. Apollo of Actium, viewing these things 
from above, was bending his bow : with the terror thereof all 
Egypt and the Indians, the Arabs and Sabseans, all were 

at the battles of Actium and Philippi, where he behaved with great 
valour. 

64 " arduus " refers to his position on the stern of his ship. B. 

65 Mark Antony, the Roman triumvir. After his defeat in the battle of 
Actium, he fled to Alexandria in Egypt, where he stabbed himself, 
b. c. 30. 

66 Egypt, a celebrated country of Africa, watered by the Nile ; bounded 
by the Red Sea (Arabian Gulf) on the east, and by Libya on the west. 

67 Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, was cele- 
brated for her beauty and mental acquirements, as also for her intrigues 
and licentious life. Cleopatra supported the cause of her favourite An- 
tony against Augustus at the battle of Actium, but by flying with sixty 
sail, contributed to his defeat ; she then retired to Egypt, where, to avoid 
falling into the hands of Augustus, she destroyed herself by the bite of an 
nn asp, b. c. 30. At 'her death Egypt became a Roman province. 

68 i.'e. she does not foresee her end. B. 

89 Anubis, an Egyptian god, represented with the head of a dog. 



300 JENEID b. viii. 707-731. 

turning their backs. The queen herself, invoking the winds, 
seemed to sail, and with eager haste to be letting loose the 
uncoiled cables. Her the god of fire had represented amidst 
the slaughter, driven along by waves and winds, pale with tha 
[terrors of] approaching death ; and opposite, [he had sculp- 
tured] the Nile with his gigantic form in deep distress, ex- 
panding his skirts, and with all his robe displayed, calling the 
vanquished into his azure bosom and sheltering streams. 
Csesar again, having in triple triumph entered the walls of 
Rome, was consecrating through all the city three hundred 
stately temples, his immortal vow to the Italian gods. The 
streets rung with joy, and games, and acclamations. In all 
the temples are choirs of matrons ; and in all the temples al- 
tars. Before the altars the sacrificed bullocks cover the 
ground. Augustus himself, seated in the snow-white porch 
of shining Phoebus, reviews the offerings of the people, and 
fits them to the stately pillars. In long orderly procession 
the vanquished nations march, as various in the fashion of their 
garb and arms as in their language. Here Mulciber had 
figured the Numidian race, and the Africans loose in their 
attire ; here the Leleges, 70 the Carians, and Geloni armed with 
arrows. Euphrates now flowed with gentler streams ; the 
Morini, 71 remotest of the human race, [appeared,] and the 
two-horned Rhine, the untamed Dahse, and the Araxes, 72 that 
disdained a bridge. 

Such scenes on Vulcan's shield, the present of his parent- 
goddess, the hero views with wonder, and [though] a stranger 
to the events, rejoices in their representation, and on his 
shoulder bears aloft the fame and fortune of his descendants. 

70 Leleges, a wandering people who originally inhabited Caria. in Asia 
Minor, and who fought in the Trojan war under their king Altes. 

71 Morini, a people of Belgic Gaul, on the shores of the British Ocean. 

72 Araxes, (Arras,) a large river of Asia, falling into the Caspian Sea; 
it .vvept away a bridge which Alexander the Great built over it. 



M. rx. 1-26. ^ENEID 301 



BOOK IX. 

In the Ninth Book, Turnus, availing himself of iEneas' absence, makes a 
furious assault upon his camp. The Trojans, reduced to the utmost ex- 
tremity, despatch to iEneas, Nisus and Euryalus, whose immortal friend- 
ship, in thi9 perilous adventure, is painted in the most glowing language. 
Turnus attacks the city, but is forced, after making a great slaughter, tc 
save himself by swimming the Tiber. 

And while these transactions were carrying on in a far dif- 
ferent quarter, Saturnian Juno sent Iris from heaven to daring 
Turnus. Turnus then by chance was sitting at rest in the 
grove of his progenitor Pilumnus, in a consecrated vale; 
whom thus the daughter of Thaumas l with rosy lips bespoke : 
What none of the gods, O Turnus, could dare to promise to 
thy wishes, lo ! revolving time hath of itself brought about ! 
JEneas, having abandoned his city, his friends, and fleet, hath 
repaired to the realms and abode of Pal an tine Evander. And, 
not content with that, he hath penetrated to the remotest cities 
of Corythus, 2 and arms a band of Lydians, rustics, whom he 
has drawn together. Why do you demur ? now is the time 
to call for your steeds, now your chariots. Break off all delay, 
and seize his camp while in disorder. She said, and on poised 
wings raised herself to heaven, and in her flight cut the spa- 
cious bow beneath the clouds. The youth knew [the goddess], 
and, stretching forth both hands to heaven, with these accents 
pursued her flying : Iris, thou glory of heaven, who sent thee 
down to me on earth shot from the clouds ? whence arises, 
on a sudden, this so bright a sky ? I see heaven in the midst 
cleave asunder, 3 and stars wandering athwart the firmament. 
Signs so illustrious will I obey, whoever thou art who sum- 
monest me to arms. And thus having said, he repaired to 
the river, and from the surface of the stream drew water, in- 
voking the gods at large ; and loaded heaven with vows. 

And now on the open plains his whole army marched, rich 
in steeds, rich in embroidered vests and gold. Messapus 

1 Thaumas, a son of Neptune and Terra, who married Electra, one of 
the Oceanides, by whom he had Iris, the Harpies, &c. 

2 The mythic founder of Cortona, here put for the city itself. B. 

3 " Discedere" is a customary term in describing this prodigy, as in 
Cicer. de Div. i. 43. Jul. Obseq. de Prod. p. 60. Compare Plutarch. 
Ttmol. p. 239, tdo%ev atyvideiog payevra rbv ovpavbv v7rkp rrjg vku>£ 
Uxeai 7ro\v teal 7repi(paveg to irvp B. 



302 ^ENEID. b. ix. 27— G5 

commands the van, the sons of Tyrrhus in the rear ; in the 
centre king Turnus moves along, wielding his arms, and over- 
tops the rest by the whole head. 4 As the deep Ganges, fed 
with seven peaceful rivers, in silence [flows] ; or, as the Nile, 
with its fertilizing waters, when from ? the plains he has re- 
tired, and now lodges himself within his channel. Here the 
Trojans descry a sudden cloud condensed in wreaths of black- 
ening dust, and darkness rising on the plains. Caicus first 
from the opposite rampart calls forth : What numerous bands, 
O citizens, are hither rolling in a black cloud of dust ? Quick, 
bring arms, give darts, mount the walls : haste, the foe is at 
hand. With loud outcry the Trojans block themselves up 
within all their gates, and man the walls : for thus ^ZEneas, 
most accomplished in arms, at departing had ordered ; that, 
if any accident should befall in the interim, they would not 
venture to set their army in array, nor trust to the field ; only 
guard their camp and walls secured by a rampart. There- 
fore, though shame and indignation prompt them to engage, 
yet they barricade their gates against [the foe], execute the 
orders [of their chief], and in arms expect the enemy within 
their holy turrets. 

Turnus, flying out before, had got the start of his sturdy 
band, accompanied with twenty chosen horse, and unexpected 
comes upon the city ; whom a Thracian steed with white spots 
bears, and a golden helmet with crimson crest defends. 
Which of you youths first will join me to attack the foe ? See 
here, he cries, and brandishing his javelin, darts it into the 
air, the prelude of the fight ; and mounted aloft he rushes to the 
field. With shouts his friends second the motion, and follow 
with dreadful-sounding din : they wonder at the faintheart- 
edness of the Trojans, that they venture not themselves in the 
equal field, nor oppose arms [to arms], but lie loitering in the 
camp. Turbulent with ire, hither and thither on his steed he 
surveys the walls, and by every pathless pass explores access. 
As when a wolf, in ambush for a full cot of sheep, lies growl- 
ing at the folds, enduring winds and rains at midnight ; under 
their dams the lambkins in safely bleat ; he, fierce and ruth- 
less with ire, rages against the absent prey : his ravenous 
hunger by length of time contracted, and his blood-thirsty 
jaws, pinch him incessantly: just so the Hutulian's anger 
4 This line is a spurious repetition from ^En. vii. 784. B. 



B. ix. 65—100. ^NEID. 303 

kindles, while he views the walls and camp ; and within his 
hard bones anguish burns, [exploring] by what means he may 
tempt access, and now force the enclosed Trojans from their 
entrenchment, and pour them forth into the plain. Their fleet, 
which, adjoining the side of their camp, lay concealed, fenced 
around with ramparts and the streams of the river, he assails ; 
loudly calls for flames from his triumphing followers ; and 
ardent fills his hand with a blazing pine. Then indeed they 
exert themselves strenuously : the presence of Turnus urges 
them on, and the whole youth are armed with black torches. 
They pillage the hearths : the smoky brand sends up a pitchy 
light, and the flames hurl mingled ashes to the stars. 

Ye muses, say, what god averted from the Trojans so 
fierce a conflagration ? who from the ships repelled such 
mighty flames ? Ancient is the testimony of the fact, but 
immortal is its fame. 

At the time when .ZEneas first formed his fleet on Phrygian 
Ida, and prepared to launch into the deep, Berecynthia 5 her- 
self, the mother of the gods, is said to have addressed great 
Jove in these words : At my request, O son, bestow what 
thy dear parent from thee craves, now that Olympus is sub- 
dued. On a lofty mountain stood a piny wood by me many 
years beloved, shaded with gloomy firs, and the maples' 
boughs, whither they brought me sacred offerings : these 
trees I with pleasure gave to the young Trojan hero, when 
he wanted a fleet: now anxious dread [on their account] 
presses my unquiet mind. Dissipate my fears, and let a 
parent by her prayers obtain, that by no voyage they may be 
shattered, or by whirling blast of wind subdued : let it avail 
them that from our mountains they sprung. To her in reply 
her son, who rolls the stars of the universe, said : Whither, 
my parent-goddess, art thou urging destiny ? or what is thy 
aim in this request ? Shall vessels built by mortal hands 
enjoy an immortal privilege, and -ZEneas, insured of safety, 
run the round of dubious peril ? in what god is so great power 
lodged ? However, when, having finished their course, they 
shall reach the goal and the Ausonian ports, whichever of 
them hereafter shall have escaped the wayes, and carried the 
Dardanian chief to the Laurentian fields, I will divest them 

5 Berecynthia, a name of Cybele, from Mount Berecyn thus in Phrygia, 
where she was worshipped. 



304 J3NEID. e. ix. 101-138. 

of their mortal form, and command to be goddesses of *hc 
spacious ocean ; such as the daughters of Nereus, Doto, and 
Galatea, who cut with their breasts the foaming deep. He 
said: and in sign of its being ratified by the rivers of his 
Stygian brother, by those banks that roll with torrents of 
pitch and black whirlpools, nods his head ; and with that nod 
he made heaven's whole frame to tremble. 

The promised day was therefore come, and the Fates had 
filled up the destined periods of time, when the outrage of 
Turn us called on the mother [of the gods] to repel the fire- 
brands from her sacred ships. Here first an unusual light 
flashed forth on the eyes [of the Trojans], and from the east 
a vast refulgent cloud was seen to shoot athwart the sky, and 
[in it] her choirs of priests; 6 then through the air a tremen- 
dous voice drops from above, and fills the hosts both of Tro- 
jans and Rutulians: Be in no hurry, 7 ye Trojans, to protect 
my ships, nor arm your hands ; sooner to Turnus it shall be 
given to burn up the seas than those sacred pines. Glide on 
at your liberty, glide ye on, goddesses of the main^ the parent 
[of the gods] commands. And forthwith from the banks the 
ships break each away her halsers, and dolphin-like diving 
with their beaks plunge to the bottom of the sea. Thence, 
wondrous prodigy, so many virgin-forms rise up, and ride 
along the main, as brazen prows had before stood ranged 
along the shore. The Rutulians stoop astonished in their 
minds ; Messapus himself, his steeds being startled, is seized 
with consternation ; the river too makes a pause, resounding 
hoarsely, and Tiberinus recalls his current 8 from the deep. 

But the confidence of daring Turnus abated not ; he briskly 
raises their spirits with his words, and briskly chides [their 
fears]: Against the Trojans are these portents aimed; from 
them even Jove himself hath withdrawn his wonted aid ; 
[their ships] wait not the darts or fires of the Rutulians, 
Therefore the seas are inaccessible to the Trojans, nor have 
they any hopes of flight ; from one half of the globe they are 
cutoff; and the land [the other half] is in our hands; so 
many armed thousands the Italian nations bring to our aid. 
To me the fatal responses of the gods, whatever they are to 

6 i. e. the Corybantes, Curetes, and the Idsei Dactyli. B. 

7 "trepidate" is explained as equivalent to "festinate" by Nonius i. 7. B. 

8 Literally, " his foot." B. 



*. ix. 134—167. ^:NEID. 305 

which the Phrygians pretend, give no concern. To the Fates 
and Venus enough is given, that the Trojans have reached 
the lands of fruitful Ausonia. I too, on the other hand, have 
my destiny, to extirpate with the sword the accursed race, 
being robbed of my spouse : nor does the painful sense of 
that indignity move only the sons of Atreus, 9 nor to Mycenae 
alone is licence given to take up arms [in such a cause]. 
But [perhaps] it is enough that they fell once : [doubtless,] 
had they thought it enough to commit the same crime but 
once before, having conceived almost a total aversion towards 
the whole race of women. They whom this confidence in 
their intervening rampart, whom the temporary defences of 
their trenches, narrow partitions from death, inspire with so 
much courage ; have they not seen the walls of Troy, built by 
the hand of Neptune, sink down in flames ? But, my chosen 
warriors, who prepares to storm their rampart sword in hand, 
and with me invades their disordered camp ? To me there 
is no need of Vulcan- wrought armour, or of a thousand ships 
against the Trojans. Let all the Tuscans this instant con- 
nect themselves with them in allian.ce : they need not fear the 
night, and the dastardly theft of the Palladium, slaying the 
guards of [Minerva's] lofty tower ; 10 nor will we hide our- 
selves in the dark womb of a horse ; we are resolved openly by 
day to surround their walls with fire. I shall make them 
sensible that they have not to do with Greeks and Argive 
striplings, whom Hector kept at bay till the tenth year. Now 
then, since the better part of the day is past, for what remains, 
my men, as things have [thus far] succeeded well, cheerfully 
refresh your bodies, and prepared expect the fight. Mean- 
while to Messapus is assigned the charge to beset their gates 
with sentinels, and enclose their ramparts with watch-fires. 
Twice seven Rutulians are chosen out to guard the walls ; 
and those are followed each by a hundred youths waving their 
purple plumes, and glittering with gold : they patrole around, 
and mount guard by turns, and by turns stretched along the 
grass they indulge the wine, and drain 11 the brazen bowls. 
The fires together shine ; in play the guards spend the sleep - 

9 Alluding to the abduction of Helen. B. 

10 Turnus sneers at the conduct of Ulysses and Diomede. See JEn. Li. 
164 sqq. B. 

11 Compare Virgil's use of "vergere." B. 



306 2ENEID. B . IX . 168-199. 

less night. These things the Trojans above from the rani- 
parts survey, and in arms guard their high posts ; their gates 
too in hurrying consternation they strictly watch, and with 
bridges join the outworks : they stand to their arms. Mnes- 
theus and fierce Serestus urge them on ; whom father ^Eneas 
appointed directors of the youthful bands, and managers of 
affairs, if at any time cross accidents should call them. The 
whole legion, having shared the danger, by lot keep guard 
along the walls, and perform the alternate duties of the post 
which each has assigned him to maintain. 12 

Nisus, the son of Hyrtacus, in arms most fierce, stood sen- 
tinel of the gate ; whom Ida, famed for hunting, sent the at- 
tendant of JEneas, nimble at the javelin and fleet arrows : and 
by his side his companion Euryalus, than whom of all the 
followers of ^Eneas no one was more comely, and none [more 
graceful] wore the arms of Troy ; a stripling whose cheeks 
were streaked with the first bloom of youth. Their love was 
one, and with equal eagerness they rushed to the war : then 
too they were posted in common to guard the gate. Nisus 
says, Do the gods, Euryalus, infuse this ardour into our 
minds ? or is each one's earnest inclination his god ? 13 Long 
has my mind been instigating me either to attempt the fight, 
or some great enterprise ; for it is not content with peaceful 
inaction. You see what confidence in the state of their 
affairs possess the Rutulians ; their lights twinkle here and 
there ; buried in sleep and wine they have laid themselves 
down; the places all around are hushed in silence. % Learn 
further what my doubting thoughts suggest, and the purpose 
which now rises in my soul. That .ZEneas should be invited 
home, all, both the people and the higher orders, impor- 
tunately crave ; and that messengers be despatched to inform 
him of the true state of our affairs. If to thee they will promise 
what I demand, (for, to myself the glory of the exploit is 
enough,) I think I can find a way under the brow of yon hill 
to the walls and fortifications of Pallanteum. Euryalus, 
stung with violent desire of praise, stood astonished ; at the 
same time he thus addresses his ardent friend : Do you then, 
Nisus, decline to admit me as your companion in those high 

12 Literally, " take turns as to what is to be defended." B. 

13 " Diine nostris mentibus cupiditates injiciunt et desideria ? An deus 
sit ipse mentis cupiditas ?" Servius. B. 



B. ix. 200—232. ^ENEID. 307 

enterprises ? Shall I send you away alone on such perilous 
adventures ? It was not thus my warlike father Opheltes 
instructed me, bred up amidst the alarms of Greece and the 
disasters of Troy ; nor have I acted such a part in your 
company, following the magnanimous ^Eneas and his for- 
tune in all extremities. This soul, this soul of mine, con- 
temns the light, and deems that honour, to which you aspire, 
well bought, even at the expense of life itself. To this Nisus 
[replied] : Believe me, I had no such apprehensions of you ; 
nor have I reason. No, so may great Jove, or whatever god 
with a favouring eye regards what we are about, return me 
to you triumphant. But if any chance, (as many such you 
see in an enterprise of this hazardous nature,) or deity hurry 
me on to adverse fate, I wish that you may survive : your age 
has a juster claim to life. Let me leave one who may deposit 
me in the earth among the dead, snatched from the field, or 
redeemed by ransom ; or who (if any fortune shall stand in 
the way of this) may pay funeral obsequies to my absent 
corpse, and honour me with an empty tomb : nor let me be 
the cause of such deep anguish to thy wretched mother, who, 
my boy, of many mothers alone adventurous follows thee, nor 
minds the walls 14 of the great Acestes. But he rejoined: In 
vain you weave fruitless remonstrances, nor is my resolution 
now staggered from its first position : let us despatch : at the 
same time he awakes the guard. They succeed, and take 
their turns of duty : having resigned his post, he sets forward 
in company with Nisus, and they seek the king. 

All other creatures over the whole earth with sleep relaxed 
their cares, and lost their toils in sweet oblivion. But the 
Trojan chiefs and select youth were holding consultation about 
the important concerns of the state ; what they ought to do, 
or who should be the messenger to iEneas. Leaning on their 
long spears they stand, wielding their targets, in the centre 
of the camp and plain. Then Nisus, and with him Euryalus, 
with prompt alacrity, beg to be admitted ; [alleging] that 
their business was important, and would compensate the de- 
lay. 15 In this their hurry and trepidation lulus first re- 
ceived them, and ordered Nisus to speak. Then thus Hyrta- 

u i. e. nor cares to tarry at Segesta with the other matrons. B. 
14 i. e. the delay of their counsels. B. 

X 2 



308 JENEID. b. ix. 233—265. 

cides 16 [spoke] : Ye followers of JEneas, listen with unbiassed 
minds; nor be these our proposals judged of by our years. 
The Rutulians, buried in sleep and wine, have composed them- 
selves to rest ; we ourselves have observed a place fit for our 
secret design, that lies obvious in the double way from the 
gate which is nearest the sea. Their fires are dying away, 
and a pitchy smoke ascends to heaven. If you give us leave 
to embrace the fortunate occasion, you shall soon see JEneas, 
in quest of whom we go to the walls of Pallanteum, here pre- 
sent with spoils, and after vast havoc made : nor set we out 
strangers to the way ; often in the shady vales at hunting 
have we seen the skirts of the town, and have surveyed the 
whole river. 

At this, Alethes, loaded with years and matured in judg- 
ment, [said:] Ye gods of my country, under whose divine 
protection Troy always is, [though you have been angry with 
us for a time,] yet you do not intend utterly to destroy the 
Trojans, since you have produced such souls, and such reso- 
lute hearts in our youth. So saying, he grasped the shoulders 
and hands of both, and with tears his face and cheeks be- 
dewed. What rewards, brave youths, what rewards of worth 
proportioned to such enterprises can I judge possible to be 
conferred upon you ? the fairest shall the gods in the first 
place and your own virtues give; ithen the rest the pious 
JEneas shall anon bestow, and Ascanius, in his prime of life, 
who never will forget so high an obligation. 

But, subjoins Ascanius, I, whose sole happiness depends on 
my father's safe return, conjure you, Nisus, by our great do- 
mestic gods, by the tutelar deity of Assaracus, and the shrines 
of hoary Vesta, (whatever fortune or confident hope 17 I have, 
I rest in your own bosoms,) recall my parent, give back his 
presence ; at his return all our sorrows will disappear. Two 
goblets of silver will I give of finished work, and rough with 
embossed figures, which my father won from sacked Arisba ; 18 
and a pair of tripods, two great talents of gold, a bowl of an- 

16 Hyrtacides, Nisus and Hippocoon are so styled, from their father 
Hyrtacus, who was a Trojan of Mount Ida. 

17 i. e. of my father's safety. B. 

18 Arisba, a colony of the Mityleneans in Troas, destroyed by the 
Trojans. 



b, ix, 266—306. iENEID, 30j 

tique cast, which Sidonian Dido gave me. But if it shall bo 
my fortune to be victorious, possess myself of Italy, enjoy the 
crown, and divide the spoils by lot ; saw you on what steed, 
in what arms Turnus rolled all in gold ? that very shield and 
crimson-crested helmet I will choose out from the lot ; prizes, 
O Nisus, which are already your own. Besides the persons 
of twelve select matrons my sire shall give, and as many cap- 
tives of the other sex, and the arms that to them all belong ; 
besides these, that ground which king Latinus himself pos- 
sesses. And as for you, idolized boy, whom my age follows 
in the nearer stages of life, I now receive you with my whole 
soul, and embrace you for my companion in all events. With- 
out thee no glory shall be sought by my exploits, whether I 
am engaged in peace or war ; to thee chiefly I will intrust 
my acts and counsels. To whom Euryalus thus replies : No 
day shall evince me unfit for enterprises so heroic ; let fortune 
fall out prosperous or adverse. But one thing above all fa- 
vours I of thee implore : I have a mother of Priam's ancient 
race, whom unhappy neither the land of Ilium, nor the city of 
king Acestes, could withhold from going along with me. Her 
now I leave a stranger to this perilous adventure, whatever it 
is, and without taking farewell ; night, and this right hand of 
thine, be witness [for me, that it was not for want of duty, 
but] that I cannot bear a mother's tears : but comfort her for- 
lorn, I beg, and succour her in her desolation. Let me bear away 
this hope from thee ; so shall I go with greater intrepidity on 
all adventures. The Trojans with minds deeply affected shed 
tears ; above all, comely lulus ; and the image of parental 
affection touched his soul to the quick. Then thus he addresses 
[Euryalus] : Expect all that is due to your glorious under- 
takings. For that mother of thine shall be mine, and only the 
name Creiisa shall be wanting ; nor small gratitude awaits 
her for giving birth to such a son, whatever fortune may at- 
tend the deed. I swear by this head of mine, by which my 
father before me was wont to [swear], whatever I promise to 
yourself, if you return in safety, and the event be prosperous, 
the same shall be made good to your mother and kindred. 
Thus weeping over him he speaks ; at the same time divests 
his shoulder of his gilded sword, which Cretan Lycaon with 
marvellous art had made, and dexterously fitted to the ivory 
sheath. On Nisus, Mnestheus bestows the skin and spoil of 



310 ^NEID, b. ix. 307— 338. 

a grim shaggy lion ; trusty Alethes exchanges with him his 
helmet. Forthwith they march thus armed ; whom the whole 
body of the nobles, both young and old, with ardent prayers 
accompany in their way to the gates ; and the comely lulus 
too, endued with a soul and manly concern beyond his years, 
gave them many instructions to carry to his sire; but the 
winds disperse them all, and fruitless give them to the clouds 
away. 19 

Having set out, they overpass the trenches, and amidst the 
shades of night advance to the hostile camps ; destined, how- 
ever, first to be 20 the death of many. In loose disorder they 
beheld bodies under the influence of wine and sleep, stretched 
along the grass, chariots with their poles erect 21 along the 
banks, men between the traces and the wheels ; arms together 
lying, together wine. First the son of Hyrtacus thus spoke : 
The right hand, Euryalus, must be boldly exerted ; now the oc- 
casion itself invites us. Here lies our way : watch you, and keep 
guard that no hand be able to lift itself against us from behind. 
These fields I will render waste, and lead thee along a broad 
pathway. This said, he suppresses his speech ; at the same 
time with his sword attacks proud Rhamnes; who, as it 
chanced, raised high on lofty carpets, was snoring forth sleep 
from his whole breast ; at once a king himself, and an augur 
in highest favour with king Turnus : but not by his augur's 
art could he ward off the stroke of death. Three servants by 
his side lying at random among the arms, and the armour- 
bearer of Remus, and (whom he found beneath the very horses' 
feet) the charioteer he stabs, and with his sword cuts off their 
reclining necks; then from the master himself takes off the 
head, and leaves the trunk gulping with blood; in purple 
gore the reeking earth and beds are drenched. Add to these 
Lamyrus, Lamus, and young Serranus, who, of distinguished 
beauty, had been much engaged that night in play, and was 
lying overpowered in every limb with the fulness of the god ; 
happy if without intermission he had equalled that play with 
the night, and lengthened it out till day. As a famished lion 

19 Because both the messengers perished by the way. B. 

20 " Destined to be." This sense of " futurus," and similar participles, 
is very common in Virgil. " Inimica " seems to contain the notion that 
the camps would prove fatal to themselves. B. 

21 The horses being unharnessed. B. 



3. ix. 339— 370. ^ENEID. 311 

making wild havoc amidst a sheep-fold, (for ravenous hunger 
prompts him on,) grinds and tears the flock, feeble and dumb 
with fear, and gnashes his bloody jaws : nor less was the car- 
nage made by Euryalus : he too all on fire rages throughout, 
and in the middle falls upon a vulgar nameless throng. Fadus 
and Hebesus, Rhoetus and Abaris, not dreaming of their fate ; 
Rhoetus broad awake, and viewing all ; but who, for fear, was 
hiding himself behind a capacious jar ; in whose opposed 
breast now close at hand he plunges the whole blade as he 
rises, and withdrew it amidst abundant death. He vomits up 
the purple stream of life, and in death renders back his wine 
mingled with blood. The other, with ardour at [the success 
of his] stratagem, presses on, and now was advancing towards 
the social bands of Messapus, where he saw the fire just in 
its extremity dying away, and the horses in order tied crop- 
ping the grass ; when Nisus thus briefly says, (for he per 
ceived that they were hurried on by too eager love of slaughter,; 
Let us desist ; for the unfriendly light approaches. We have 
glutted ourselves with vengeance to the full: a passage is 
made through our foes. Many arms of the heroes [slain], of 
solid silver elaborately wrought, they leave behind, and, to- 
gether with them, goblets and beautiful carpets. Euryalus 
[seized] the rich trappings of Rhamnes, and the belts with 
golden bosses ; presents which opulent Caedicus of old had 
sent to Tiburtine Remulus, 22 when in absence he plighted with 
him a league of hospitality (he at death bequeaths the same 
to his grandson to possess ; and after his death the Rutulians, 
masters of the field and booty) : 23 these he seizes, and adjusts 
to his valiant shoulders, but in vain. 24 Then he puts on the 
well-fitting helmet of Messapus, with plumes adorned. They 
quit the camp, and take possession of safe ground. 

Meanwhile three hundred horse, all shielded, with Volscens 25 

22 Remulus, a chief of Tibur, whose arms were seized by the Rutulians, 
and became part of the plunder which Euryalus obtained. 

23 We must understand, "gave them to Rhamnes." Wagner with 
reason considers this line spurious. B. 

24 " Nequidquam " must be joined with " aptat," not with " fortibus," 
as is remarked by Servius. Compare vss. 312 sq. B. 

25 Volscens, a Latin chief, who attacked Nisus and Euryalus as they 
returned from the plunder of the Rutulians. He killed Euryalus, but 
*<vas himself immediately slain by Nisus. 



312 J3NEID. b. rx. 371— 404 

at their head, despatched before from the city of Latinus, 
(while the rest of the legion in battle-array slowly on the plains 
advance.) were marching up, and bore an answer to king 
Turnus. And now they were approaching the camp, and 
just entering the rampart, when at a distance they espy them 
turning away on the left-hand path ; and in the glimmering 
shade of night the helmet betrayed the unwary Euryalus, and 
opposed to the beams of the moon, shot a gleamy light. Scarce- 
ly was the object seen, Yolscens from the troop exclaims 
aloud : Stand, fellows ; what motive brings you hither ? or 
who are ye thus in armour ? or whither are ye bound ? They 
aimed not at making a reply ; but hastened their flight into 
the woods, and trusted to the night. On each side the horse- 
men plant themselves at the known passes, and encircle every 
avenue with a guard. There was a wood wide overgrown 
with stiff underwood and gloomy holms, which thick bram- 
bles had choked up on every side ; here and there a path led 
through hidden tracks. The thick shade of boughs and cum- 
brous booty embarrass Euryalus, and fear misleads him from 
the straight way. Nisus retires ; and now unawares had 
escaped from the foe, and from the lakes which in after times 
were called Albanian from Alba's name : then king Latinus 
had there his lofty stables. Soon as he stopped, and for his 
absent friend looked back in vain, [he exclaimed :] Unfortu- 
nate Euryalus, in what quarter have I left thee ? or whither 
shall I follow thee ? Again measuring back the whole per- 
plexed path of the mazy wood, he at once with accurate sur- 
vey retraces his steps, and ranges over the silent thickets : he 
hears the steeds, he hears the bustling noise, and signals of the 
pursuers. Nor long time intervened, when a shout assails 
his ears, and he sees Euryalus, whom the whole band are 
now dragging along with sudden tumultuous uproar, betrayed 
and intercepted by the treachery of the place and night, and 
struggling hard in vain. What shall he do ? by what power, 
by what arm shall he attempt the youth to rescue ? shall he, 
resolute on death, fling himself into the midst of his foes, and 
through wounds open a quick passage to a glorious death ? 
Straight with his contracted arm brandishing a javelin, thus 
to the moon on high with eyes upturned he addresses his 
prayer : Do thou, O goddess, do thou propitious aid my enter- 



B. rx. 405— 440. -ENE1D. 313 

prise, thou glory of the stars, 26 and daughter of Latona, guard- 
ian of the groves : if ever my father Hyrtacus for me brought 
offerings to thy altars ; if ever I added to the number by my 
svlvan spoils, or suspended any in thy vaulted ceiling, or af- 
fixed to thy sacred roof; suffer me to confound this congre- 
gated rout, and guide my weapons through the air. He said, 
and straining at once with his whole body, hurls the steel. 
The flying spear cuts the shades of night, and lights on the 
back of Sulmo, who stood opposite to him ; and there is 
shivered, and with the splintered wood pierces through his 
vitals. Down he falls cold [in death], discharging from his 
breast the warm stream of life, and with long sobs beats his 
flanks. They throw their eyes around different ways. Lo, 
he, animated the more with this, poised from the tip of his 
ear 27 another weapon, while they are bustling about. The 
whizzing spear pierced through both the temples of Tagus, 
and warmed in his transfixed brain stuck fast. Yolscens 
furious storms, nor any where discerns the owner of the wea- 
pon, or one on whom in his burning rage he may wreak his 
vengeance. But you, meanwhile, he says, with your warm 
blood, shall pay the forfeit of both : at the same time with 
sword unsheathed he rushed on Euryalus. Then indeed in 
terrible agony Nisus frantic screams aloud ; nor longer was 
able to conceal himself in darkness, or to support such deep 
distress : On me, on me, here am I who did the deed, O turn 
your swords on me, Rutulians : mine is all the offence : he 
neither durst nor could do aught : this heaven and conscious 
stars I call to witness : only he loved his unhappy friend too 
much. Thus he spoke : but the sword with force driven 
home pierces through his sides, and bursts his snow-white 
breast. Euryalus is overwhelmed in death, the blood flows 
down his beauteous limbs, and on his shoulders the drooping 
neck reclines : as when a purple flower, cut down by the 
plough, pines away in death, or the poppies on their weary 
necks drop down their heads, when with rain they chance to 
be overcharged. But Nisus rushes into the midst of them, 
and seeks Yolscens alone through all : on Yolscens alone he 
fixes his attention ; whom (Nisus) the foes encircling close, 

26 So Hor. Carm. Sec. 1, " Phoebe, lucidum coeli decus." Moschus, 
vii. 2, Kvavkaq Upbv (pi\e vvktoq dyak/uia. B. 
27 . Virgil expresses the vapd x ctlTav pfyai of Eurip. Hippol. 220. B. 



314 ^NEID. b. ix. 441— 478. 

this way and that way drive off. He not less keenly presses 
on, and whirls his flashing sword, till he plunged it into the 
mouth, full opposite, of the bawling Rutulian, and dying, 
bereft his foe of life. Then covered with wounds, he flung 
himself on his liftless friend, and there at length in peaceful 
death reposed. Kappy pair ! if my verses can aught avail, 
no day shall . ever erase you from the records of time ; while 
the race of iEneas shall inhabit the immovable Capitoline 
rock, and a Roman monarch hold the empire [of the world]. 

The victorious Butulians, masters of the prey and spoils, 
in mournful procession bore lifeless Yolscens to the camp. 
Nor in the camp was the mourning less, when they found 
Rhamnes pale in duath, and so many chiefs slain by one 
slaughter, and Serrar.us, and Numa. There is a great con- 
course about the bodies, about the expiring warriors, the 
ground, recent with warm slaughter, and rivulets full of foam- 
ing blood. They recognise the spoils, and among themselves 
Messapus' shining helmet, and the trappings with much sweat 
regained. 

And now early Am ora, leaving Tithonus' saffron-coloured 
bed, sprinkled the earth with new-born light ; the sun having 
now shed his beams [on the world], and objects by his light 
being again revealed; Turnus rouses his men to arms, him- 
self with arms begirt around, and each leader rallies to the 
battle his troops arrayed in brass ; and 'by various rumours 
they stimulate their martial rage. Even the heads of Nisus 
and Euryalus, a piteous spectacle, on spears erect they in the 
front affix, and with vast acclamation follow. On the left 
side of the walls the hardy Trojans opposed to them their 
host (for the right is bounded by the river) ; and they main- 
tain their ample trenches, and on their lofty turrets mournful 
stand, as soon as the heads of the youths fixed up to view, 
but too well known to the unhappy spectators, distilling black 
gore, excited [their grief]. 

Meanwhile the winged messenger Fame, flying through the 
affrighted city, rushes along, and glides to the ears of the 
mother of Euryalus ; then suddenly, with misery over- 
whelmed, the vital warmth forsook her bones. The weaving 
instruments dropt from her hands, and her labours were 
unravelled. The hapless woman flies out, and with female 
shrieks, tearing her hair, frantic takes her way with speed to 



B. ix. 479-511. ^ENEID. 315 

the walls and nearest bands. Not of men, or of darts, or of 
danger, is she heedful: then with these complaints she fills 
the sky: Is this you 28 I see, Euryalus? art thou that late 
solace for my old age ? Cruel one ! couldst thou leave me all 
alone ? and to thy wretched mother didst thou not allow ac- 
cess to address to thee her last farewell, when on such peril- 
ous adventures sent ? Alas ! in a strange land, given a prey 
to Latian dogs and fowls, thou liest ! nor I, thy own mother, 
laid thee out for thy funeral obsequies, nor closed thy eyes, 
nor bathed thy wounds, covering thee with the robe, which 
for thee in haste I forwarded both night and day, and with 
the loom solaced my aged cares. Whither shall I go in pur- 
suit of thee ? or what land now holds thy limbs, thy mangled 
members, and lacerated corse ? Is this all of thee, my son, 
thou bringest me back ? is this what I have followed both by 
land and sea ? Pierce me, O Rutulians, (if you have any 
tenderness,) at me hurl all your darts ; me first cut off with 
the sword : or thou, great father of the gods, compassionate 
me, and with thy bolts thrust down to Tartarus this detested 
head, since I can by no other means shake off cruel life. By 
these doleful lamentations the minds [of the Trojans] are 
deeply struck, and a sorrowful groan is heaved from every 
breast ; quite broken and benumbed are all their powers for 
battle. Idaeus and Actor, by the direction of Ilioneus and 
deeply afflicted lulus, seize her while she is thus inflaming the 
general grief, and in their arms bear her back to her dwelling. 
Meanwhile the trumpet from afar, with its shrill-sounding 
brass, chided with dreadful peal. 29 Shouts follow, and heaven 
echoes back the sound. The Yolscians with uniformity ad- 
vance, a testudo being formed. 3a They prepare both to fill up 
the trenches and demolish the rampart. Some explore access, 
and by scaling-ladders [seek] to mount the walls, where the 
troops are but thin, and where, not so thick of men, the cir- 
cling band is seen through. On the other hand, the Trojans, 
practised by long war to defend their walls, poured on them 
every kind of missile weapons, and pushed them down with 

28 " Hunc " is used for " talem." See Pierius. B. 

29 " Increpuit " is elegantly used. Servius well explains it thus : " ct 
insouuit, et segmtiam increpuit." B. 

80 Cf. Sallust, Jug. 94, " turn vero cohortatus milites. et ipse extra Val- 
ium egressus, testudine acta, succedere." B. 



316 ^ENEID. b. ix. 512—543 i 

sturdy poles. They rolled down rocks too of destructive 
weight, trying whether they could break through their fenced 
battalion : while [the Rutulians] notwithstanding, under the 
close fence of their shields, are willing to sustain all dangers, 
Nor now are they able to stand the shock ; for, where thick 
embodied ranks press on the attack, the Trojans roll and hurl 
down an enormous pile, which made wide havoc among the 
Rutulians, and broke the fence-works of their shields. Nor 
care the bold Rutulians longer to contend in covered fight, but 
by missile weapons strive to beat them from the rampart. In 
another quarter Mezentius, horrid to be seen, brandished a 
Tuscan pine, and hurls smoky firebrands. Again, Messapus, 
a horseman brave, the progeny of Neptune, makes a breach 
in the rampart, and calls for ladders against the walls. 

Ye [sacred Nine, and thou], Calliope, [in chief,] 31 aid me 
while I sing what desolations, what deaths there Turnus then 
with the sword effected, what hero each sent down to Pluto ; 
and trace with me the vast outlines of the war : for ye, O 
goddesses, both remember, and can rehearse them. 

Of height prodigious, and with lofty communications, 32 
there stood a tower, commodious in its situation,, which with 
their utmost efforts all the Latins strove to storm, and with 
the full extent of their resources to overthrow : the Trojans, 
on the other hand, defended it with stones, and flung darts in 
thick volleys through the hollow loop-holes. Turnus in the 
foremost tossed a blazing brand, and to the sides [of the tower] 
fixed the flame, which by the wind diffusely spread, seized the 
boards, and to the pillars clung until they were consumed. 33 
[The Trojans,] all aghast, raised a fearful bustle within, and 
shelter from the disaster sought in vain. While they crowd 
together, and retreat into that part which is free from the con- 
tagious ruin, then suddenly the tower, with the weight [over- 
burthened], tumbled town, and with the crash all heaven thun- 
ders : down to the ground half dead they come, an immense 
pile of ruins following, pierced with their own weapons, and 

31 I have retained Davidson's translation of this bold syllepsis, for which, 
as Servius remarks, correct language would require, " vos Musae, aut tu, 
Calliope." B. 

32 i. e. from the walls. 

33 Anthon renders " partially consumed." But the other sense seems 
borne out by Silius i. 363, " pluteis Vulcanus exercet adesis." B. 



B. lx. 544— 581. J3NEID. 317 

their breasts transfixed with the iron -pointed wood. Helenor 
alone and Lycus with great difficulty escaped : whereof the 
elder Helenor (whom the slave Licymnia by a stolen embrace 
had borne to the Lydian king, and sent to Troy in forbidden 
arms) was lightly armed with a naked sword, and inglorious 
with his escutcheon blank. And as soon as he saw himselt 
amidst Turnus' thousands, and on either hand around him 
ranged the Latin troops ; as a beast of chase, which, hemmed 
in by a thick band of huntsmen, rages against their darts, wil- 
fully flings herself on death, and with a bound springs on the 
hunters' spears ; just so the youth, certain to die, rushes on 
his foes, and where he sees the darts thickest, advances. But 
Lycus, far more swift of foot, through foes and through arms, 
by flight reaches the walls, and strives with his hand to grasp 
their high summits, and reach the arms of his friends : whom 
victorious Turnus at once with swift career and dart pursuing, 
thus upbraids : Fool, didst thou hope thou wouldst be able to 
escape our hands ? At the same time he gripes him hanging, 
and with a great fragment of the wall pulls him down : as 
when Jove's armour-bearer, soaring on high, hath in his 
crooked talons raised aloft either a hare, or snow-white swan ; 
or, sacred to Mars, the wolf hath snatched from the folds a 
lambkin, by the dam with many a bleating sought. The shout 
from every quarter rises. They fall on, and with heaps of 
earth fill up the trenches ; others to the battlements toss the 
blazing brands. With a rock, and vast fragment of a moun- 
tain, Ilioneus overthrows Luceti us,' approaching to the gate, 
and armed with flames ; Liger Emathion, Asylas Chorinseus, 
the one skilled in the javelin, the other in the far-deceiving 
arrow ; Ceeneus [overthrows] Ortygius, Turnus the victorious 
Casneus ; with Itys, Clonius, Dioxippus, Promulus, Sagaris, 
and Idas standing in defence of the lofty turrets : Capys 
Privernus. Him the spear of Themilla at first had grazed ; 
[on which he,] infatuate, throwing away his shield, applied 
his hand to the wound ; up to him then the arrow glides on 
its wings, and to the left side his hand was nailed : and deep 
lodged within, with a deadly wound, it burst the breathing 
engines 34 of the soul. In arms illustrious the son of Arcens 35 

* 4 l 'Dennitio pulmonum, qui dicuntur a spirando." Servius. B. 
85 Arcens, a Sicilian, who permitted his son to accompany iEneas into 
Italy, where he was killed by Mezentius 



318 ^NEID. b. ix. 582—612. 

stood, clad in an embroidered chlamys, and shining in Iberian 
purple, of distinguished form ; whom his father Arcens sent, 
in the grove of Mars bred up about the streams of Simaethus, 36 
where, fat [with offerings] and placable, the altar of Palicus 37 
stands. Mezentius himself, having laid aside his arms, thrice 
whirling around his head the thong, discharged a hissing 
sling, and with the half-melted lead clove his temples asunder 
as he stood full opposite to him, and stretched him at his full 
length on a large space of the sandy plain. Then for the first 
time in war Ascanius is said to have directed a fleet arrow, 
having been wont before only to fright the fugitive beasts of 
chase, and by his hand to have prostrated brave Numanus, 
whose surname was Remulus, and who had to wife the 
younger sister of Turnus, in wedlock lately joined. Before 
the van, bawling aloud [whatever first occurred, whether] 
decent or indecent to hear, and in heart puffed up with his new 
regal honour, he stalked, and thus with vast clamour made 
his vaunt : Ye Phrygians, twice enslaved, are you not ashamed 
to be a second time shut up by blockade and entrenchments, 
and to screen yourselves from death within your walls ? Lo, 
these are they, who by force of arms claim to themselves our 
brides ! What god, what madness drove you to Italy ? They 
are not the sons of Atreus you have here, nor the crafty- 
tongued Ulysses ; but a race hardy from their original. Our 
infants soon as born to the rivers we first convey, and in the 
rigid icy stream we harden. In the chase our boys are keen, 
and harass 38 the woods : 'their pastime is to manage steeds, and 
dart the arrow from the bow. Our youth again of labour 
patient, and to frugality inured, either by the harrow subdue 
the ground, or batter towns in war. Our whole lifetime is 
worn out in arms, and with the inverted spear we goad the 
backs of our steers ; nor does slow age impair our strength of 
mind, or alter our vigour. Our grey hairs we with the helmet 

56 Simaethus, (Giaretti,) a river of Sicily which falls into the sea be- 
tween Catana and Leontini. In its neighbourhood the gods Paiici were 
born, and particularly worshipped. 

** As the Paiici (sons of Jove by the nymph iEtna, or the muse Tha- 
lia) were two in number, we should perhaps read " Palicum " with 
Cerda. I myself prefer u Palicis," which might be more easily corrupted 
from ignorance of this use of the dative. B. 

** For this use of " fatigare," compare Val. Flacc. lii. 26. So " fatigat 
Hebrum," Silius ii. 74. 



H. ix. 612— 644. JENEID. 319 

press ; and still 'tis our delight to sweep together fresh booty, 
and to live on plunder. Your very dress is embroidered with 
saffron-hues and gaudy purple ; indolence is your heart's de- 
light ; to indulge in dances you love ; your vests have sleeves, 
and your mitres ribands. O Phrygian women, surely, for 
Phrygian men you cannot be ! go range along the lofty tops of 
Dindymus, 39 where the pipe sounds the discordant 40 note to 
you accustomed. The timbrels and Berecynthian flute 41 of 
the Idaean mother Cybele invite you : leave arms to men, and 
from the sword refrain. Him blustering thus in words, and 
proclaiming horrid indignities, Ascanius could not bear ; and, 
fronting him full, on the horse-hair string extended his arrow, 
and drawing both his arms to a wide distance, paused, first 
suppliant addressing Jove in vows : Almighty Jove, assist my 
daring enterprise. So to thy temples will I bring thee solemn 
offerings, and before thy altars present a bullock with a gilded 
forehead of snowy whiteness, and bearing his head of equal 
stature with his dam, who already butts with his horn, and 
spurns the sand with his feet. The sire gave ear, and from a 
serene quarter of the sky thundered on the left. At the same 
time twangs the deadly bow ; and whizzing dreadful flies the 
drawn-back arrow, and passes through the head of the Rutu- 
lian, and with the steel point transfixes his hollow temples. 
Go, insult valour in haughty terms. To the Rutulians your 
twice subdued Phrygians send back this answer. Ascanius 
said no more. The Trojans second him with acclamation, 
ring with joyous applauses, and extol his valour to the stars. 

In the ethereal region fair-haired Apollo was then by 
chance surveying from above the Ausonian troops and city, 
seated on a cloud, and thus he bespeaks victorious lulus : Go 
on, increase in early valour, O boy ! Such is the pathway to 
the stars, O descendant of the gods, and from whom gods are 
to descend. Under the line of Assaracus all wars by fate or- 
dained in justice shall subside ; nor is Troy capable of con- 
taining thee. At the same time, having pronounced these 

s * Dindymus, a mountain of Galatia in Asia Minor, where Cybele was 
worshipped. 

40 Literally, " its twofold tone." " Biforis " simply means that it had 
but two perforations. B. 

** These flutes were formed of box, B. 



320 JENEID. b. tx. 645—670 

words, lie throws himself from the lofty sky, divides the whis- 
pering gales, and seeks Ascanius ; then in the features of his 
face he is transformed into aged Butes. To Dardanian An- 
chises this man had formerly been armour-bearer, and faithful 
guardian at the gate : then father ^ZEneas assigned him the 
companion of Ascanius. Thus marched Apollo, in every thing 
resembling the aged sire, both in voice and complexion, in 
silver locks, and arms fierce with rattling din : and in these 
words he addresses the ardent lulus : Offspring of .ZEneas, let 
it suffice that by thy shafts Numanus hath fallen, thyself un- 
hurt : to thee this first glory great Apollo vouchsafes, and 
envies not thy similar feats of arms. For what remains, O 
*oy, abstain 42 from fight. This said, Apollo dropped his hu- 
man appearance, in the midst of the interview, and into thin 
air far vanished out of sight. The Dardanian chiefs knew 
the god and his divine shafts, and in his flight perceived his 
rattling quiver. Therefore, by the mandate and divine au- 
thority of Phoebus, they restrain Ascanius greedy for the 
fight : themselves once more to the combat advance, and on 
apparent dangers throw their lives. Along the battlements 
round the whole compass of the walls their acclamations run ; 
they bend the rapid bows, and whirl the slings. All the 
ground is strewn with darts ; then shields and hollow helmets 
in the conflict ring : a fierce engagement ensues : with such 
fury as a shower by the influence of the rainy Kids 43 arising 
from the west lashes the ground ; or as thick as storms of hail 
come down headlong into the floods, when Jupiter in the 
south wind tremendous hurls down a watery tempest, and 
bursts the hollow clouds in the sky. 

Pandarus and Bitias, sprung from Alcanor of Mount Ida, 
whom sylvan Hiera trained up in Jupiter's sacred grove, 
youths tall as their native firs and mountains, on their arms 
relying, throw open the gate which by their general's com- 
mand was intrusted to their charge, and from the ramparts 
voluntarily challenge the foe. Themselves within, on right 
and left, before the turrets stand, armed with steel, and their 
towering heads with plumes adorned: as about the crystal 

42 Homer II. A. 422, 7ro\efiov d' a.7ro7ravao 7rdfX7rav. B. 

43 These stars rise in October, and are always atttended with rain. 
They are seated in the constellation Auriga, See Servius. " B. 



*. ix. 680— 714. ^ENEID. 321 

streams, whether on the banks of Po, or by the pleasant 
Adige, 44 two aerial oaks together rise, and shoot up to heaven 
their unshorn heads, and nod with their towering tops. The 
Kutulians, soon as they saw a passage opened, rush in. 
Forthwith Quercens, Aquicolus graceful in arms, and Tmarus 
in mind precipitant, and martial Haemon, with all their troops, 
either routed turned their backs, or at the very threshold of 
the gate laid down their lives. Then the hostile minds 
[within] grow more fierce with rage; and thither now the 
Trojans flock in thick embodied troops, and dare to encounter 
hand to hand, and make sallies 45 [on the foe]. To Turn us the 
leader, in a different quarter raving, and throwing the troops 
into disorder, intelligence is brought that the enemy rages 
with fresh slaughter, and had set the gates wide open. He 
*• quits his present enterprise, and stirred with hideous rage, 
rushes forward to the Trojan gate, and the haughty brothers ; 
and first Antiphates, (for he presented himself the first,) the 
spurious issue of noble Sarpedon by a Theban mother, with a 
javelin hurled he overthrows. The Italian shaft 46 flies 
through the thin air, and, piercing the stomach, sinks deep 
into his breast ; the gaping aperture of the wound emits a 
foamy tide of black blood, and in his transfixed lungs the steel 
is warmed. Then Merops, Erymas, and Aphidnus with his 
hand he stretches on the plain ; next Bitias, flashing fire from 
his eyes, and in soul outrageous; not by a javelin, for to the 
javelin Jhe would not have resigned his life ; but a brandished 
fiery dart loud hissing flew, like a bolt of thunder shot, which 
neither the two bulls' hides [which formed his shield], nor his 
trusty corslet with double scales of gold, were able to sus- 
tain : his enormous limbs fall prostrate on the ground. Earth 
gives a groan, and over him his buckler thunders loud. As on 
Baia's 47 Euboean shore there falls at times a rocky pile, which 
before built of enormous bulk they in the ocean place ; thus 
tumbling headlong it draws ruin with it, and dashed against the 
shallows, sinks to its rest quite down : the seas are all embroiled, 

44 Adige, the ancient Athesis, a river of Cisalpine Gaul ; it rises in the 
Rhoetian A.ps, and falls into the Adriatic. 

43 Such is the sense of " procurrere." See Drakenb. on Silius, vii, 
566. B. 

46 Literally " cornel-wood." B. 

47 Baia, a city of Campania, on a small bay west of Naples, and oppo- 
site Puteoli, said to have been founded by Baius, a companion of Ulysses 



322 JENEID. b. ix. 714—747 

and the black sands are heaved on high ; then at the roaring 
noise highProchyta 48 trembles, and Inarime's hard bed, thrown 
on Typhoeus by Jove's command. Here Mars potent in arms 
inspired the Latins with additional courage and prowess, and 
deep in their breast plies his sharp goad ; and on the Trojans 
he threw flight and grim terror. [The Latins] from every 
quarter gather, now that opportunity of a battle is offered, 
and the warrior god hath fallen upon their minds. Pandarus, 
soon as he perceives his brother stretched at his length, in 
what situation their fortune stands, and what an unexpected 
turn is given to their affairs, hurls the gate with vast force on 
the turned hinge, shoving it along with his broad shoulders, and 
leaves many of his friends shut out from the city in the hard 
combat'; but others with himself he encloses, and admits them as 
they pour forward : infatuate ! who did not mark the Rutulian 
prince amidst the troops rushing upon him, or eagerly con- 
fined him within the city, as a hideous tiger among the feeble 
flocks. Instantly an unusual light flashed from his eyes, and 
his arms sounded dreadful ; his flaming crests tremble on his 
head, and from his shield he gleamy lightnings darts. The 
Trojans suddenly discover his detested face and hideous limbs, 
and are confounded. Then mighty Pandarus springs out, 
and, inflamed with rage for his brother's death, addresses him 
aloud : Not Amata's palace thy promised dowry this, nor is it 
the heart of Ardea that contains Turnus within his native 
walls. The hostile camps you see ; there is no possibility of 
your escaping hence. Turnus with mind sedate smiling on 
him [says] : Begin, if any courage be in thy soul, and hand 
to hand with me engage ; to Priam you shall report that heie 
too you found an Achilles. He said. The other, exerting 
his utmost force, hurls at him a spear rough with knots and 
the green rind. The air received the wound ; Saturnian 
Juno interposing turned it aside, and the spear fixes in the 
gate. But not so this weapon, which my right hand wields 
with might, shall you escape ; for not [so feeble is 49 ] he who 

48 Prochyta, (Procida,) an island of Campania, between the island of 
Inarime and the coast. Inarime, (Ischia,) an island near the coast of 
Campania, with a mountain, under which Jupiter is feigned to have con- 
fined the giant Tiphoeus. 

49 "Is" is here used for "talis," as " hunc" for " talem " in x& 
481. B. 



fc. ix. 748-781. ^NEID. 323 

owns the weapon, or who inflicts the wound. Thus he said ; 
and rises to his sword lifted high, and in the middle between 
the temples, his forehead with the blade cleaves asunder, and 
[pierces] his beardless cheeks with a hideous wound. A sound 
ensues ; with his mighty weight earth receives a shock. In 
death he stretches on the ground his stiffening limbs, and 
arms bespattered with blood and brains ; and on this side and 
that side his head in equal parts from cither shoulder hung. 
In tumultuous consternation the Trojans, turning their backs, 
fly hither and thither ; and had the conqueror immediately 
conceived the thought of tearing away the bolts with his 
hands, and admitting his comrades by the gates, that day 
both to the war and [Trojan] race had been the last: but 
fury and mad desire of slaughter drove him on the foes now 
full in his view. First Phalaris and Gyges (having smitten 
on the ham) 50 he catches up; then seizing their spears, darts 
them into the backs of the fugitives : Juno supplies him with 
force and courage. He joins Halys their companion [in death], 
and Phegeus, having transfixed his shield ; next Alcander and 
Halius, Noemon and Prytanis on the walls, unapprized [of his 
admission], and rousing the martial spirit [of their friends]. 
Lynceus advancing against him, and calling on his friends, 
he from the rampart dexterously with his glittering sword 
assails, straining every nerve : his head, together with the 
helmet, at one close blow struck off, was laid far off; the next 
[attacks and kills] Amycus, that destroyer of the savage kind, 
than whom no one was more skilful to anoint 51 the dart, and 
arm the steel with poison ; and Clytius, a son of iEolus, and 
Creteus, a friend to the Muses; Creteus, the Muses' com- 
panion, who in the song and lyre still took delight, and to 
adapt poetic numbers to the strings : of steeds, and arms, and 
combats of heroes he for ever sang. 

At length the Trojan leaders, Mnestheus and fierce Se- 
restus, apprized of the slaughter of their troops, assemble; 
and perceive their friends dispersed and the enemy within the 
city. And Mnestheus calls : Whither, whither next bend ye 

50 The nature of this wound shows that he was flying with the rest, as 
\nthon observes. Cf. Ovid. Met. viii. 364, " succiso liquerunt poplite 
acrvi." B. 

51 i. e. to poison. So " ungere " is used in Hor. Od. ii. 1. Lucan 
ii. 266. B. 



324 ^ENEID. *. ix. 782—819. 

your flight ? what other walls, what other fortifications have 
you now beyond this ? Shall one man, O citizens, by ramparts 
every way hemmed in, spread such vast havoc through the 
city with impunity ? shall he despatch to Pluto so many of 
the most illustrious of our youths ? Can neither shame nor 
pity towards your unhappy country, your ancient gods, and 
great .ZEneas, touch your recreant breasts ? Fired by these 
words they are fortified [with courage], and in a close body 
stand firm. Turnus begins by slow degrees to retreat from 
the fight, and make towards the river, and that part [of the 
wall] which is bounded by the stream. So much the more 
keenly the Trojans press upon him with loud acclaim, ana 
form a clustering band : as with annoying darts a troop [of 
hunters] press on after a fierce lion ; while the appalled savage, 
surly, louring stern, flinches back; nor rage, nor courage, 
suffer him to fly ; nor can he, for darts and men, (though fain 
indeed he would,) make head against them ; just so Turnus 
hovering in suspense backward withdraws his lingering steps ; 
and his soul with rage tumultuous boils. Even then twice 
had he attacked the enemy in the centre ; twice along the 
walls he chased the troops in confusion routed. But [issuing] 
from the camp in haste, the whole host against him alone 
combine ; nor dares Saturnian Juno supply him with strength 
against them, for Jupiter sent down from heaven aerial Iris, 
bearing no mild mandates to his sister, unless Turnus quit the 
lofty walls of the Trojans. Therefore, neither with his shield 
nor arm is the youth able to withstand so great a shock : he is 
so overwhelmed on all hands with showers of darts. With 
incessant clang the helmet round his hollow temples rings, 
and the solid arms of brass are riven with battering stones ; 
from his head the plumes are struck off; nor is his buckler's 
boss sufficient to support the blows : The Trojans, and thun- 
dering Mnestheus himself at their head, with spears redouble 
thrust on thrust. Then all over his body the sweat comes 
trickling down, and pours a black clammy tide ; nor has he 
power to breathe; languid, panting heave his weary limbs. 
Then at length in all his arms with a bound he flung himself 
headlong into the river. He, expanding his yellow bosom, 
received him at coming up, and upbore him on his peaceful 
streams ; and, having washed away his stains of blood, re- 
turned him joyous to his friends. 



8. x. 1-28. -ENE1D. 32. 



BOOK X. 

In the Tenth Book, Jupiter calls a council of the gods, and attempts in Tain 
a reconciliation between Juno and Venus, who favour the opposite parties. 
The fight is renewed. JEneas returns and joins battle with the Latins, 
when Pallas is killed by Turnus, who is saved from the avenging hand of 
iEneas by the interposition of Juno. 

Meanwhile the palace of all-powerful heaven is opened, 
and the parent of the gods, the sovereign of men, summons a 
council into the starry mansion, whence, from aloft, he views 
all lands, the Trojan camp, and Latin nations. In the abode 
with its two-valved gates, they take their seats ; Jove himself 
begins : Ye high celestials, why is your purpose backward 
turned ; and why so fiercely do ye with hostile minds con- 
tend? It was my will that with the Trojans Italy should not 
engage in war : what means this dissension against my prohi- 
bition ? what jealousy hath prompted these or those to pursue 
hostilities, and rouse the sword? The just time for fight will 
come, (anticipate it not,) when hereafter fierce Carthage shall 
on Roman towers pour down mighty ruin, and the opened 
Alps: then shall leave be given you to fight with mutual 
animosities, then to plunder. 1 At present forbear, and cheer- 
fully ratify the destined league. Thus Jupiter briefly said ; 
but bright Venus on the other hand not briefly replies : O 
Sire, O eternal power of gods and men ! (for what other sub- 
sists whom now we can implore?) seest thou how the Rutu- 
lians insult, and how Turnus on his steed conspicuous is hur- 
ried through the ranks, and swollen with successful war pours 
along ? now not even their fenced bulwarks protect the Tro- 
jans; even within the gates, and on the very turrets of the 
walls, they join battle, and the trenches are deluged with blood. 
^Eneas unwittingly is absent. Will you never suffer them 
from blockade to be relieved ? Once more our enemies, another 
army too, are hovering over the walls of Troy just rising anew 
into life; and once more Tydides from JEtolian Arpi 2 rises 

1 i. e. to carry on war after the early fashion. Servius well refers this to 
the " clarigatio," or public challenge offered by the Feciales, (see Diet. 
Antiq.,) observing that " Caedere " was equivalent to " res rapere," " sa- 
tisfacere " to " res reddere." B. 

2 Arpi, called also Argyripa, a city of Apulia in Italy, built by Diomcdc 
r.fter the Trojan war. 



326 ^INEID. b. x. 29—63. 

against the Trojans. I truly believe new wounds are reserved 
for me; 3 and I, your own progeny, await a contest with a 
mortal. If without thy permission, and in defiance of thy 
will, the Trojans have come to Italy, let them atone for their 
offence ; and do not support them with thy aid : but if [they 
came] in pursuance of so many responses, which powers celes- 
tial and infernal both delivered, why now has any one the 
power to pervert thy commands, or to frame new schemes of 
fate ? What need have I to recall to mind the firing of their 
fleet on the Sicilian shore ? or why the king of storms and his 
furious winds raised from iEolia, or Iris sent down from the 
clouds ? Now, even to the powers of hell (that quarter 
of the universe [alone] unsolicited remained) she has re- 
course ; and Alecto, suddenly let loose upon the upper world, 
infuriate hath roamed through the midst of the Italian 
cities. For empire I am no further solicitous ; these hopes we 
entertained while fortune was ours ; let those prevail whom 
thou wilt rather have prevail. If there be no spot on earth 
which thy rigid spouse will vouchsafe to the Trojans, thee 
I conj ure, father, by the smoking ruins of demolished Troy, 
permit me to dismiss Ascanius safe from arms ; permit my 
grandchild to survive. For ^Eneas, truly let him on seas 
unknown be tossed, and pursue whatever course fortune shall 
give him : let me but have power to protect the boy, and 
rescue him from the horrid fray. Amathus is mine: lofty 
Paphos, and Cythera, and the mansion of Idalia, are mine : 
here, laying arms aside, let him inglorious spend his days. 
Command Carthage to rule Ausonia with powerful sway; 
from him no opposition shall arise to the Tyrian cities. What 
hath it availed ^Eneas to escape the ravages of war, and to 
have fled through the midst of Grecian flames ; and to have 
drained to the dregs so many dangers both by sea and land 
immense, while the Trojans are in quest of Latium, and of 
another Pergamus again tottering to its fall ? Would it not 
have been better for them to settle on the last ashes of their 
country, and the soil where Troy once was? Give back, 1 
pray, to the hapless ones their Xanthus and Simois ; and, 
further, permit the Trojans to struggle once more with the 
disasters of Troy. Then imperial Juno, stung with fierce rage, 
thus spoke : Why do you compel me to break my profound 
8 Venus had been previously wounded by Diomede. B. 



B. x. 64-93. ^NEID 327 

silence, and by words proclaim my smothered grief? Did any 
of the gods or human race constrain JEneas to pursue war, and 
present himself as a foe to king Latinus ? He set out for Italy, 
by the authority of the Fates : I grant it ; impelled by Cas- 
sandra's mad predictions. Did we advise him to abandon his 
camp, or to commit his life to the winds ? or to trust a boy 
with the chief administration of the war, or with the city ; 
or [to solicit] the protection of the Tuscan monarch, and 
embroil nations that were at peace ? What god, or what rigid 
power of mine, urged him to these guileful measures ? Where 
was Juno on this occasion, or Iris, who, [you tell us,] has 
been despatched from above? A high indignity, [no doubt,] 
it is, that the Latins should surround your infant Troy with 
flames, and that Turnus should settle in his native land ; he 
whose grandsire is Pilumnus, 4 whose mother is the goddess 
Venilia. 5 What is it then for the Trojans to assault the 
Latins with the gloomy brand, or to enthral kingdoms not 
their own, and bear away the plunder ? What is it for them to 
suborn fathers-in-law, and carry off betrothed spouses from 
the bosoms [of their plighted lords] ? What is it for them to 
sue for peace like suppliants, while on their ships they dis- 
played the ensigns of war ? You can privately convey JEneas 
from the hands of the Greeks, and in his stead spread before 
their eyes a misty cloud and empty air : you too can trans*- 
form his ships into so many nymphs; for us to have aided the 
Rutulians against him ever so little is a heinous crime. JEneas, 
[you say,] in ignorance is absent: and absent let him remain 
in ignorance. Paphos is yours, Idalium also, and lofty Cythera ; 
why then do you solicit a city big with war, and hearts a 
rough mould ? Do we attempt to overturn from its foundation 
thy frail Phrygian state ? is it we ? or rather he who to the 
Greeks exposed the wretched Trojans ? Who 6 was the cause 
that Europe and Asia rose together in arms, and by a perfidi- 
ous crime violated their league ? Was it under my conduct that 
the Trojan adulterer stormed Sparta? or did I supply him 
with arms, or foment the war by lust ? Then it became you to 

4 Pilumnus, a deity worshipped at Rome, from whom Turnus boasted 
of being lineally descended. 

5 Venilia, a nymph, sister to Amata, and mother of Turnus by Daunus. 

6 " Quae " must not be joined with " causa," but taken independently, 
as is evident from the imitation of Propert. ii. 2, 45, " Olim mirabar, qua: 
Uiti ad Pergama belli Europae atque Asiae causa puella fait." B. 



328 J3NEID. e. x. 94-1,% 

be in fear for your minions : now too late you rise with un« 
just complaints, and throw out reproaches of no avail. Thu> 
Juno pleaded her cause ; and all the celestials murmured out 
various assent ; as when the rising gales, pent in the woods, 
begin to mutter, and roll along soft whispers, that to mariners 
betoken approaching winds. 

Then the almighty Sire, whose is the chief command of the 
universe, begins. While he speaks, the sublime mansion of 
the gods is hushed, and earth from its foundation trembles ; 
the lofty sky is silent ; then the zephyrs are still ; the sea levels 
its peaceful surface. Listen, therefore, and fix in your minds 
these my words : since it is not permitted that with the Tro- 
jans the Ausonians be joined in league, and your dissensions 
receive no end ; whatever fortune to-day is for each, whatever 
hope each cuts out for himself, be he Trojan or Rutulian, I 
will regard them both without distinction ; whether the camp 
[of the Trojans] be now besieged by the Latins, through the 
decrees of fate, or in consequence of Troy's fatal error, and 
inauspicious presages. 7 Nor do I exempt the Rutulians. To 
each his own enterprise shall procure disaster or success. 
Sovereign Jove shall be to all the same. The Fates shall take 
their course. Bowing his head, he confirmed the promise by 
the streams of his Stygian brother, by the banks that roll 
with torrents of pitch and black whirlpools, and by his nod 
made heaven's whole frame to tremble. Here the consulta- 
tion ended : then Jupiter rises from his golden throne, whom 
in their centre the celestial powers conduct to his palace. 

Meanwhile the Rutulians at all the gates are keenly em- 
ployed in slaughtering the troops, and encompassing the walls 
with flames. On the other hand, the host of the Trojans 
within their ramparts are closely shut up ; nor have they any 
hope of escape. Forlorn they stand on the lofty turrets to no 
purpose, and with thin bands beset the walls. Asius, the son 
of Imbracus ? and Thymcetes, the son of Hicetaon, the two 
Assaracci, and aged Tybris, with Castor, lead the van : those 
both the brothers of Sarpedon and Clarus, and Hsemon, from 
lofty Lycia, accompany. Acmon of Lyrnessus, inferior 
neither to his father Clytius, nor to his brother Mnestheus, 

' i. e. " or through their wrongly interpreting the uncertain presages 
•which had been sent as a warning." Servius refers the remark tt» 
(( Cassandree impulsus furiis" in vs. 68. B 



\\. x. 131—1(33. ^NEID. 329 

Straining with his whole body, bears a huge rock, no incon- 
siderable portion of a mountain. Some with darts, some 
with rocks, strive to defend [the town] ; others burl fire- 
brands, and fit their arrows to the string. Lo, in the midst, 
Venus' most worthy care, the young prince of Troy, with his 
comely head uncovered, sparkles like the diamond which 
divides the yellow gold, an ornament either for the neck or 
for the head : or as shines the ivory by art enchased in box- 
wood, or Orician ebony; 8 whose spreading locks his milk- 
white neck receives, and a circle of ductile gold upbinds. 
Thee too, O Ismarus, the magnanimous nations saw aiming 
wounds, and arming thy shafts with poison; [Ismarus,] de- 
scended from a noble Lydian family, where the swains till, 
and Pactolus 9 waters with his golden streams, rich fertile- 
lands. Mnestheus too lent his aid, whom his former glory of 
having beaten Turnus from the bastion greatly exalts: and 
Capys : from him the name of the Campanian city 10 is 
derived. They were mutually engaged in the combats of 
rugged war : jEneas at midnight was ploughing the waves. 
For soon as having left Evander, entering the Tuscan camp, 
he repairs to the king, and lays before him his name and 
nation ; informs him what is his demand, what proposals he 
brings; what troops Mezentius is procuring for himself; the 
outrageous temper of Turnus ; reminds him how little confi- 
dence there is in human affairs, and intermixes prayers : no 
delay ensues. Tarchon joins his forces, and strikes a league. 
Then the Lydian nation, disengaged from the restraint of fate, 
enter the fleet, by order of the gods put under the conduct of 
a foreign leader. iEneas' galley leads the way, under whose 
beak are Phrygian lions yoked : Ida towers above, most grate- 
ful to the Trojan exiles. Here great iEneas sits, and revolves 
with himself the various events of war ; and Pallas attached 
to his left side, now questions him of the stars, their path 
amid the darksome night ; now of the sufferings he sustained 
both by land and sea. 

8 Orician ebony, from Oricum, a town of Epirus in Greece, on the 
Adriatic. 

9 Pactolus, a river of Lydia in Asia Minor, issuing from Mount 
Tmolus, and falling into the Hermus below Sardes. The sands of the 
Pactolus, like those of the Hermus, were mingled with gold. 

u i. e. Cap la. B. 



330 .ENEID. b. x. 164—189 

Now open Helicon, ye goddesses, and me inspire to sing ; 
what troops meanwhile accompany JEneas from the Tuscan 
coasts, man his ships, and are borne on the main. 

First Massicus in the brazen-beaked Tigris ploughs the 
waves, under whom is a band of a thousand youths, who left 
the walls of Clausium, 11 and who the city Cosae; 12 whose 
weapons are arrows and light quivers on their shoulders, and 
the deadly bow. With him stern Abas goes : his whole 
squadron with burnished arms, and his stern with a gilded 
Apollo shone. To him Populonia, his mother-city, had given 
six hundred youths expert in arms ; but Hva, 13 an island en- 
nobled by inexhaustible mines of steel, three hundred. The 
third, Asylas, the famed interpreter of gods and men, to whom 
the fibres of victims, to whom the stars of heaven, are in sub- 
jection, and the languages of birds, and the flashes of presaging 
thunder, pours along his thousand close-ranged in battle- 
array, and with erect spears. These Pisa, 14 a Tuscan city in 
its territory, Alphean in origin, to him put in subjection. 
Astur follows, a most comely hero, Astur confiding in his 
steed and parti-coloured arms. Those who in Caere, 15 who in 
the plains of Minio 16 dwell, and ancient Pyrgi, and unwhole- 
some Graviscae, join [with him] three hundred (all have one 
resolution to follow). Thee, Cycnus, 17 chief of the Lugurians, 
most valorous in war, I cannot pass over ; nor thee, Cupavo, 
by few troops accompanied, on whose crest a swan's plumes 
arise, (your crime was love,) the ensign of your father's trans- 

11 Clausium, the ancient Clusium, a town of Etruria, on the banks of 
the Clanis, where Porsenna was buried. 

12 Cosae and Populonia, maritime towns of Etruria. 

13 Ilva, (Elba,) an island of the Tyrrhene Sea, between Italy and Cor- 
sica; it was famous for its iron mines. Davidson. Compare Rutil. 
Itin. i. 351, " Chalybum memorabilis Ilva metallis." B. 

14 Pisa, a town of Etruria, at the mouth of the Arnus, built by a 
colony from Pisa in Elis. 

15 Caere, a city of Etruria, of which Mezentius was king when JEneas 
came to Italy. 

16 Minio, (Mignone,) a river of Etruria, falling into the Tyrrhene Sea. 
Pyrgi and Graviscae, maritime towns of Etruria. 

17 Cycnus, a son of Sthenelus, king of Liguria, who was deeply af- 
fected at the death of his friend Phaeton, and was metamorphosed into a 
swan. Phaeton, the son of Phoebus and Clymene, according to the poets, 
was intrusted by his father with the chariot of the sun for one day, when, 
by his unskilful driving, he nearly set the world on fire, upon which Jupi^ 
ter struck him with a thunderbolt, and he fell into the river Po. 



b. x.* 190— 220. JENEID 331 

formation. 18 For they tell us that Uycnus, while for grief of 
his beloved Phaeton he sings among the poplar boughs, his 
sisters' shade, and with music soothes his disconsolate love, 
[by transformation clothed] with downy plumes, brought upon 
himself 19 hoary age, leaving the earth, and soaring to the stars 
with his song. The son, in the fleet accompanying his coeval 
troops, with oars impels the bulky Centaur : the monster stands 
on the flood, and reared high threatens the waves with an 
enormous rock, and with his long keel ploughs the deep seas. 
The famed Ocnus 20 too leads on a squadron from his native 
coasts, son of the prophetic Manto and the Tuscan river 
[Tiber], who gave thee walls, O Mantua, and his mother's 
name ; Mantua rich in ancestors : 21 but they are not all of 
one lineage. Three clans to her belong : under each clan are 
four communities ; of those communities she herself is the 
capital city. The strength [of her inhabitants are] of Tuscan 
blood. Hence too Mezentius arms five hundred against him- 
self, whom Mincius, sprung from the parent-lake Benacus, 
crowned with azure reed, conveyed to the sea in hostile ships 
of pine. The stern Aulestes advances, and, rising [to the 
stroke], lashes the wave with a hundred oars : the surface 
overturned, the billows foam. The enormous Triton bears 
him with his shell-trumpet affrighting the azure floods : whose 
hairy front, as he swims along, displays a human form down 
to the waist, his belly terminates in a pristis, under his half- 
savage breast the foamy surges murmur. So many chosen 
chiefs in thirty vessels went to the aid of Troy, and ploughed 
with prows of brass the briny plains. 

And now day had withdrawn from the heavens, and auspi- 
cious Phoebe in her night-wandering car was shaking the 
mid-region of the sky. JEneas (for anxiety gives not sleep 
to his limbs) himself, seated at the helm, both steers and man- 
ages the sails. And, lo ! in his mid-course there came up to 
him a choir of those who were his attendants before, nymphs 

18 Put a comma after *' pennae," taking the words " crimen amor ves- 
trum " in a parenthesis. See Wagner. B. 

19 I have followed Heyne. The whiteness of his plumage made him 
appear like an aged person. B. 

20 Ocnus, the son of Tiber and Manto, who assisted ^Eneas against 
Turnus. He built a town which he called Mantua, after his mother's 
name. 

21 So Statius Theb. i. 391, " Adrastus dives avis." B. 



332 ^NEID. b. x. 221- 253. 

whom propitious Cybele had appointed Id enjoy divinity in 
the sea, and from ships to become nymphs : with equal motion 
they swam along, 22 and cut the waves ; as numerous as the 
brazen-beaked vessels which had before been drawn up on 
the shore. Their king at a distance they descry, and in 
circling dances him surround : of whom the most accomplished 
speaker, Cymodocea, following, with her right hand grasps 
the stern, while with her back she rises [above the flood], and 
with her left hand gently rows her way along the silent waves. 
Then him unknowing she thus addresses : Wakest thou, 
.ZEneas, offspring of the gods ? awake and give your ship full 
sails. We are the pines of Ida, from that mountain's sacred 
top, [once] thy fleet, now nymphs of the sea. When the per- 
fidious Rutulian pressed us with fire and sword till we were 
on the brink of ruin, constrained we burst thy cables, and go 
in quest of thee through the ocean. The mother [of the 
gods] in pity new-fashioned in form, and permitted us to be- 
come goddesses, and to pass our life under the waves. But 
[know that] the boy Ascanius is blocked up in the W T all and 
trenches, amidst darts, and amidst the Latins arrayed in all 
the terrors of Mars. Now the Arcadian horse, united with 
the valiant Tuscans, have reached the place appointed : It is 
the determined resolution of Turnus to intercept their march 
with his troops, that they may not join the camp. Come, 
arise, and at the approach of morn first command thy troops 
to arms ; and take thy shield, which, of unconquerable might, 
the god of fire gave to thee, and encircled its borders with 
gold. To-morrow's sun (if you deem not my words vain) 
shall behold vast heaps of Rutulian slaughter. She said ; and 
parting, with her right hand shoved forward the lofty stern, 
not unskilful in the art : the vessel flies along the waves 
swifter than the javelin, and the arrow that keeps pace with 
the winds. The rest then speed their course. The Trojan 
son of Anchises, himself not knowing [the cause], is lost in 
wonder, yet by the omen raises the spirits of his men. Then 
surveying the high vault of heaven, he briefly prays : Boun- 
teous parent of the gods, Idaean Cybele, whose dear delight is 
Dindymus, and turret-bearing cities, and lions yoked in pairs 

22 So Oppian Hal. i. 565, eggvto Gclggov o'kttov. v. 477, ds\(pig d' rjvr 
o'igtoq — KpaiTrva Qkwv. " Modo " refers to the keeping the ship properly 
poised, while the impulse was given, as is remarked by Anthon. B. 



ii. 'x. 254—289. ^ENEID. 333 

under thy reins, be thou now my leader in the fight ; do thou, 
O goddess, in due form render the omen propitious, and with 
thy propitious influence aid the Trojans. 

This only he said, and meanwhile the day revolved, was 
now with perfect light advanced, and had chased away the 
night. First he enjoins his troops to observe the signal, and 
to dispose their minds for arms, and prepare themselves for 
the combat. And now he has the Trojans and his camp in 
view, standing on his lofty deck. Then next on his left arm 
he raised aloft his flaming buckler. The Trojans from their 
walls raise acclamations to the stars. Additional hope rouses 
up their fury. Darts from their hands they hurl : as under 
the gloomy clouds Strymonian cranes give the signal, and 
swim along the skies with din, and from the south winds with 
joyous clamour fly. But to the Rutulian prince and Ausonian 
leaders this seemed amazing ; till looking back they observed 
the fleet turned towards the shore, and the whole channel of 
the river gliding along with vessels. The tufted helmet on 
his head blazes, and from the top of his crest a flame is poured 
forth, and the golden boss of his buckler darts copious fires ; 
just as when in a clear night the sanguine comets baleful 
glare ; or, as Sirius, that blazing star, when he brings droughts 
and diseases on sickly mortals, rises and saddens the sky with 
inauspicious light. Yet daring Turnus dropped not his bold 
purpose to preoccupy the shore, and, as they approached, beat 
them from the land. Then eagerly addressing his men, he 
raises their courage, and briskly chides their fears: 23 That 
which you ardently wished is come, by dint of valour to crush 
[the foe] ; Mars himself, brave men, is in your power. 24 Now 
each man be mindful of his wife and home ; now let him re- 
flect on the mighty deeds, the glory of his ancestors. Let us 
of ourselves make head against them by the stream, while 
they are in disorder, and their first steps at landing stagger. 
Fortune_assists the daring. He said, and ponders within 
himself whom to lead against [the enemy], or to whom he 
may intrust the siege of the town. 

Meanwhile iEneas by bridges lands his troops from their 
lofty ships. Many watched the retreat of the ebbing sea, and 

23 There seems little doubt that this line is a spurious introduction fron* 
Mn. ix. 127. B. 

24 i. e. you can bring them to an open fight. B. 



334 ^NEID. b. x. 289— 31C. 

with a spring committed themselves to the shallows ; others 
row themselves ashore. Tarchon having surveyed the strand 
where there is no surf, 25 and where no dashing wave remur- 
murs, but the sea unbroken glides along with the swelling 
tide, suddenly turns hither his prow, and addresses his asso- 
ciates : Now, my select band, ply the sturdy oars ; push 
briskly, urge on your vessels ; cleave with your beaks this 
hostile soil, and let the keel plough a way for itself. Nor 
shall I refuse to dash my ship in pieces in such a port, if we 
but once seize the land. Which as soon as Tarchon thus had 
said, his mates rose to their oars at once. And full on the Latin 
coast their foaming galleys bear, till the beaks rest on the dry 
dock, and all the keels without harm are moved : but not so 
thy vessel, Tarchon ; for while against the shallows dashed 
she hangs on the fatal ridge, long balanced in suspense, and 
tires the waves, she is staved, and exposes the crew in the 
midst of the waves ; whom fragments of oars and floating 
benches embarrass, while the tide retreating draws back their 
steps. 

Then no supine delay withholds Turnus ; but impetuous he 
hurries on his whole host against the Trojans, and on the 
shore ranges them full opposite. They sound the alarm. 
iEneas first attacked the rustic troops, an omen 26 of the fight ; 
and routed the Latins, having slain Theron, their giant chief, 
who boldly makes up to JEneas : through the brazen texture 
[of his buckler], and through his tunic rough 27 with gold, he 
with the sword drains 28 his transfixed side. Next he smites 
Lycas, who was cut out of his mother when dead, and to thee, 
O Phoebus, devoted, because in infancy he was permitted to 
escape the perilous chances of steel. 29 Not far onward he 

25 But others read " sperat " for " spirant." B. 

26 Servius observes: "omen, quia, sicut nunc, sic ubique vincet 
^neas." B. 

27 Or " dull to the view." Anthon. But I prefer the explanation of 
Crellius ii. 6, "significat copiam densitatemque auri in summarum 
speciem intexti." B. 

28 i. e. " drinks the blood from his side." But it may also be taken 
as equivalent to " transfodit." Servius observes: "cum enim a latere 
quis aliquem adortus gladio occidit, hausit ilium dicunt." So Ovid Met. 
v. 126, "Herenti latus haurit Abas." Silius i. 392, " Et rapto nudum 
clypeo latus haurit Hiberi." B. 

29 Such cluldren were consecrated to Apollo. See Servius. B. 



o. x. 317—353. ^NEID. 53.5 

overthrows in death hardy Cisseus, and gigantic Gyas, as 
they were felling the troops with clubs. Neither the wea- 
pons of Hercules, nor their strength of arm, aught availed 
them ; nor did they profit by having Melampus for their 
father, the companion of Alcides, as long as earth supplied 
him with toilsome labours. Lo, at Pharus hurling a javelin, 
he fixes it full in his bawling mouth, while he vaunts das- 
tardly speeches. Thou, too, Cydon, (while thou hapless art 
pursuing Clytius, thy new charmer, shading his cheeks with 
the first yellow down,) overthrown by the Trojan arm, re- 
gardless of those loves which thou ever didst entertain for 
boys, hadst lain an object of compassion, had not a band of 
brothers, the progeny of Phorcus, in close array made head 
against him : seven in number, and seven darts they fling ; 
part from his helm and shield ineffectual rebound ; part just 
grazing on his skin indulgent Venus turned aside. -ZEneas 
thus bespeaks his trusty Achates : Supply me with darts, (not 
one against the Rutulians shall my right hand hurl in vain,) 
[of those] which on the Trojan plains once stood in the bodies 
of the Greeks. 30 Then he grasps at once and tosses a mighty 
spear; it flying pierces through the brazen plates of Moeon's 
shield, and his cuirass together with his breast transfixes. 
To him comes up his brother Alcanor, and with his right 
hand sustains his falling brother ; piercing whose arm, the 
darted spear flies straitly on, and drenched in blood, holds on 
its course ; and from the shoulder by the nerves the arm hung 
lifeless. Then Numitor, from his brother's body having 
snatched a javelin, aims it at ^Eneas: but to him it is not 
permitted in his turn to transfix [the hero], and it grazed on 
the thigh of great Achates. Here Clausus of Cures, confiding 
in his youthful person, comes up, and wounds Dryops at a 
distance with a rigid spear, under his chin with force driven 
home ; and, transfixing his throat while the word is in his 
mouth, at once of speech and life bereaves him : but he with 
his front beats the ground, and at his mouth disgorges clotted 
blood. Three Thracians, too, of Boreas' exalted line, and 
three whom their father Idas and Ismara their parent soil 
sent, by various fate he overthrows. Halaesus runs up, and 
the Auruncian bands; Messapus, too, the son of Neptune, 
with his steeds conspicuous comes up : now these, now those, 
30 Which had been plucked from the bodies of the slain. B. 



336 JENEID. b. x. 354—392 

strive to beat off each other. In the very confines of Ausonia 
the contest rages. As in the spacious sky jarring winds with 
equal rage and force raise war ; nor they to one another, nor 
clouds, nor sea, [on either side] give way : long is the com- 
bat dubious ; all things stand struggling against each other : 
just so the Trojan and the Latin hosts encounter; foot to foot 
is fixed, and man to man closely joined. But in another quar- 
ter, where the torrent had far and wide dispersed whirling 
stones, and thickets uptorn from the banks, as soon as Pallas 
saw the Arcadians, unused to combat on foot, turning their 
backs to Latium fierce in the pursuit, since the rugged nature 
of the ground induced them to let go their steeds ; now witb 
entreaty, now with bitter expostulation, (the sole expedient left 
in this distress,) he rouses their valour : Whither, my fellow- 
soldiers, do you fly ? By yourselves and your own gallant 
deeds, by the name of Evander your chief, by the battles you 
have won, and by my hopes, which now, emulating my father's 
glory, trust not to your heels. With the sword you must 
burst a passage through your foes, where that globe of men in 
thickest array press on us : this way your ennobled country 
calls you and Pallas your leader. They are not gods who 
pursue us : mortal ourselves, by a mortal foe are we urged : 
to us as many souls, as many hands, [as to them] belong. 
Lo ! the ocean with his immense barrier of sea hems us in : 
now land too is wanting for us to fly to : whither, into the 
deep, or for Troy, shall we bend our course ? He said, and 
into the midst of thick-embodied foes bursts a way. Him 
Lagus first opposes impelled by his inauspicious fate ; him, 
while he is tugging a stone of enormous weight, he transfixes 
with a whirled lance, where along the middle [of the back] 
the spine divided the ribs; and forces away the spear fast 
sticking in the bones : whom, [while thus employed,] Hisbon 
fails in striking from above, though this, indeed, he hoped; 
for, as he rushes on unguarded, while, by the cruel death of 
his companion, he is driven to madness, Pallas surprises him 
first, and buries the sword in his swollen lungs. Next Sthe- 
nelus he attacks, and, of the ancient race of Rhoetus, Anche- 
molus, who dared to violate, by incest, his step-dame's bed. 
In the Rutulian plains, likewise, you twin-brothers fell, Lari 
dus and Thymber, Daucus' exactly similar offspring, undir- 
tinguished by your own parents, and [the objects of] their 



s. x. 393—429. jENEID. 337 

j .leasing error. But now Pallas on you fixed cruel marks of 
distinction ; for from thee, O Thymbras, the Evandrian blade 
leaped off the head ; and thy dismembered hand, O Laridus, 
seeks for thee its owner ; the dying fingers quiver, and gripe 
once more the steel. Against their foes mixed indignation 
and shame arm the Arcadians fired by this warning, and view- 
ing the hero's glorious deeds. Then Pallas transfixes Rhceteus 
flying across [him] in his chariot. This gave Ilus space [to 
live], and just so long respite: for at Ilus he had aimed from 
far the sturdy spear ; which Rhceteus coming between inter- 
cepts, as thee he flies, most valiant Teuthras, and thy brother 
Tyres ; and, rolled from his chariot, half-dead, he spurns the 
Rutulian fields. And as in summer, the winds having risen 
to his wish, the shepherd lets loose scattered fires among the 
woods ; in a trice Vulcan's squadrons, having seized the in- 
termediate trees, are at once extended in horrid array over all 
the spacious plains ; victorious he sits viewing the triumphant 
flames: just so the whole valour of thy troops in one com- 
bines, and supports thee, O Pallas. But Halaesus, fierce in 
war, advances against the hostile bands, and within the covert 
of his arms himself collects. Ladon, Pheres, and Demodocus 
ha knocks down ; from Strymonius with his shining blade he 
strikes off the right hand raised against his throat ; with a 
rock he batters Thoas' front, and scatters the bones mingled 
with bloody brains. His father in the woods had concealed 
Halassus, presaging his fate. Soon as the aged sire in death 
relaxed his aged eyes, the Destinies laid hands on him, and 
devoted him to the arms of Evander, whom Pallas approaches, 
first addressing his prayer thus: Grant now, O father Tiber, 
to this missile steel I poise, success, and a passage through the 
breast of stern Halsesus ; so shall thy oak possess these arms 
and spoils of the hero. To this address the god gave ear ; 
while Halaesus screened Imaon, in an unhappy hour he ex- 
poses his defenceless breast to the Arcadian dart. But Lau- 
sus, no small portion of the war, suffers not his troops to be 
dispirited by the vast havoc which the hero made. First 
Abas to him opposed he kills, the knot and stay 31 of the bat* 
tie. Down drop Arcadia's sons, down drop the Tuscans, and 

31 " Nodum " is a metaphor derived from the difficulty with which 
knots are unfastened. On " mora " compare Silius i. 479, " Romani 
belli mora." So Senec. Ag. 211. Troad. 124. Phcen. 458. B. 

z 






338 ^NEID. b. x. 430— 406. 

you, ye Trojans, frames undestroyed by the Greeks. Both 
hosts in encounter join, with leaders and with forces equal; 
those in the rear press on the ranks before; nor does the 
throng leave room to wield their hands or weapons. Here 
Pallas drives on and urges the attack ; there, in opposition to 
him, Lausus ; nor is there great difference in their ages ; in 
comeliness they are distinguished ; but their return to their 
country fortune had denied. Yet he who reigns in heaven 
supreme permitted not that with each other they should en- 
gage ; their destiny awaits them soon from a superior foe. 

Meanwhile Turnus, who through the midst of the host in 
his fleet chariot cuts his way, his gentle sister warns to fly to 
Lausus' relief. Soon as his friends he viewed, [he exclaimed,] 
It is time to desist from battle : against Pallas I alone am 
bound : to me alone is Pallas doomed : would to heaven his 
sire himself were spectator. He said ; and from the plain the 
troops at his command retired. But the youth, struck with 
the retreat of the Rutulians, and the imperious orders, gazes 
on Turnus with astonishment ; over his huge body he rolls his 
eyes, and with ferocious visage all the man aloof surveys. 
Then with these words in return to the tyrant's speech moves 
up : Now, or by bearing away triumphal spoils, or by illus- 
trious death, shall I be signalized. For either chance my sire 
is equal. Away with your threatenings. This said, he advances 
into the middle of the plain. Round the Arcadian hearts the 
cold blood congeals. Down from his chariot Turnus sprang ; 
on foot prepares to meet him hand to hand. And as a lion, 
when from his lofty place of observation he hath espied a bull 
standing on the plains aloof, meditating the fight, flies up to 
him ; such is the image of Turnus rushing [to the combat]. 
Soon as Pallas supposed him to be within reach of the darted 
lance, he makes the first advance with strength unequal, 
[trying] if fortune by any means will aid his bold enterprise ; 
and thus to the lofty heavens himself addresses : By my father's 
hospitality, and those boards which thou his guest didst visit, 
Alcides, aid, I thee implore, my arduous attempt : may the 
dying eyes of Turnus behold me strip him expiring of his 
bloody armour, and let his dying eyes endure the sight of a 
victorious foe. Alcides heard the youth, and deep in the bottom 
of his heart a heavy groan suppresses, and pours forth unavail- 
ing tears. Then the Sire with these kind words his son be- 



B x< 4G7— 504. jENEID. 339 

speaks : To every one bis day is fixed : 'a short and irretrievable 
term of life is given to all n but by deeds to lengthen out fame, 
this is virtue's task. Under the lofty walls of Troy so man) 
sons of gods have fallen : with them even Sarpedon, my owr 
offspring, fell ; Turnus too his destiny calls, and to the utmost 
verge of life he is arrived. He said ; and from the fields of the 
Rutulians he averts his eye. 

But Pallas with mighty force hurls the spear, and from the 
hollow scabbard tears his shining blade. The weapon flying 
lighted where the armour rises high on the shoulder., and, 
opening a way through the extremity of the shield, at length 
too on the great body of Turnus grazed. At this Turnus, long 
poising a javelin tipped with sharpened steel, darts it at Pallas, 
and thus speaks : See whether ours be not the more penetrat- 
ing dart. He said; and with a quivering stroke the point 
pierces through the mid-shield, through so many plates of iron, 
so many of brass, while the bull's hide so many times encom- 
passes ft, and through the corslet's cumbrous folds transfixes 
his breast with a hideous gash. 32 He in vain wrenches out the 
reeking weapon from the wound : at one and the same passage 
the blood and soul issue forth. Down on his wound he falls : 
over him his armour gave a clang ; and in death with bloody 
jaws be bites the hostile ground. Whom Turnus bestriding, 
says, Ye Arcadians, to Evander faithfully these my words re- 
cord : in such plight as he deserved I send his Pallas back. 
Whatever honour is in a tomb, whatever solace is in interment, 
1 freely give him. His league of friendship with JEneas shall 
cost him not a little. And thus having spoken, he pressed 
with his left foot the breathless corpse, tearing away his belt's 
enormous weight, and the horrid story with which it was em- 
bossed, (in one nuptial night a band of youths barbarously 
murdered, and their bridal beds bathed in blood,) 33 which 
Clonus, Eurytion's son, had carved in abundant gold : in which 
spoil Turnus now triumphs, and exults in the possession. How 
blind is the mind of men to fate and future events ! how un- 
willing to practise moderation, and how with prosperity elated ! 
the time will come when Turnus shall wish that it had been 
purchased at a dear price, that Pallas had not been touched, 
and when these spoils and this day he shall detest. But Pallas 

32 Servius, and I think more correctly, refers <: ingens " to "cusp is." B 
M i.e. the story of the daughters of Danaus. B. 

z 2 






340 iENEID b. x. 505—542. 

stretched on his shield, a numerous retinue of his friends, with 
many a groan and tear, back convey. O thou that art about 
to return to thy parent, his grief and ample glory both ! This 
day first gave thee to the war, the same snatches thee away ; 
yet after thou hast left vast heaps of Rutulians. 

And now not mere rumour, but an unquestionable voucher 
of so great disaster flies to .ZEneas ; that his friends were on 
the verge of utter ruin, that it was high time to succour the 
flying Trojans. With his sword he mows down whatever was 
near him, and with the steel impetuous forces a wide passage 
through the host, in quest of thee, O Turnus, proud of thy 
recent slaughter. Pallas, Evander, all are full before his eyes ; 
the first banquets in which then a guest he joined, and their 
plighted right hands. Here four youths, the progeny of Sulmo, 
and as many more whom Ufens bred, alive he snatches ; whom 
as victims he may offer to the shade [of Pallas], and drench 
with their captive blood the flames of his funeral pile. Next, 
when at Magus he aimed from afar his hostile lance, he art- 
fully stoops, and over his nead the quivering javelin flies ; and 
embracing his knees, him suppliant he thus addresses : By my 
father's manes, and the hopes of thy rising son Iiilus, I im- 
plore thee, spare this life, 34 both for a son and for a father's 
sake. A stately mansion I possess ; talents of silver embossed 
lie deep-lodged under ground ; masses of wrought and un- 
wrought gold I have ; it is not upon this that the victory of 
the Trojans turns : one life will not so great a difference 
make. He said ; to whom iEneas thus, on the other hand, 
replies.: Those many talents of gold and silver you mention, 
reserve for your sons : those mutual stipulations of war Turnus 
first cancelled from the moment Pallas was slain. So [thinks] 
the manes of my sire Anchises, so thinks Iiilus. This said, 
he grasps his helmet with his left nand, and bowing back his 
neck, as he begged for mercy, plunged [in his throat] his 
sword up to the hilt. Not far on JEmonides, the priest of 
Phoebus and Diana, whose temples a mitre with holy fillets 
bound, in his robe and burnished armour all refulgent : him 
encountering he drives along the plain, and standing over him 
fallen, offers him a victim, and covers him with the deep shades 
[of death]. Serestus, gathering up his arms, bears them on 

34 A Greek expression. Herodot. viii. 118. Itrwcrs /3a<ji\rjog rr\v -^v\r]v 
So Juvenal vi. 653, " Morte viri cupient animam servare catellae." B. 



p. x. 542-576. iENEID. 341 

his shoulders as a trophy to thee, king Mars. Caeculus, born 
of Vulcan's race, and Umbro, who came from the Marsian 
mountains, renew the fight. The Trojan prince burns with 
fury against them. Anxur's left arm and his buckler's whole 
circumference he with his sword had struck off. Some mighty 
spell he had pronounced, and imagined there would be virtue 
in the word; perhaps he was exalting his soul to heaven with 
vain hopes, and had proposed himself grey hairs and length 
of years. On the other hand, Tarquitus, whom to sylvan 
Faunus the nymph Dry ope bore, in his refulgent arms exult- 
ing, to the incensed hero himself opposed. He, darting a 
spear with full force, renders his corslet and buckler's vast 
bulk useless for defence : then strikes down to the ground 
his head as he begs in vain, and seeks to plead much; and, 
tumbling the warm trunk, over it pronounces these words 
from his hostile breast: There now, thou dreaded one, lie. 
Thee in the earth no dearest mother shall lodge, nor in thy 
native soil load thy limbs with a grave ; to birds of prey thou 
shalt be left ; or sunk in the deep, the waves shall bear thee 
down, and hungry fishes suck thy wounds. Forthwith Antaeus 
and Lycas, Turnus' foremost leaders, he pursues, and valiant 
Numa, and Camers of yellow locks, from magnanimous Vol- 
scens sprung ; who of all Ausonia's sons was richest in land 
estate, and over Amyclae, the city of silence, 35 reigned. As 
JEgseon who, they say, had a hundred arms and a hundred 
hands, and flashed fire from fifty mouths and breasts ; when 
against the thunderbolts of Jove he on so many equal bucklers 
clashed, unsheathed so many swords : just so the victorious 
-ZEneas wreaked his fury all over the plain, when once his 
pointed steel was warmed [with blood], even against the four 
harnessed steeds of Niphasus and their chests opposed he ad- 
vances : but, as soon as from far they saw him marching up, 
and breathing dire revenge, with affright wheeling about, and 
rushing back, they tumble out the chief, and whirl the chariot 
to the shore. Meanwhile Lucagus, in his chariot drawn by two 
white steeds, flings himself into the midst, as also his brother 
Liger : but with the reins his brother guides the steeds : fierce 
Lucagus flourishes the naked sword. JEneas could not pati- 

35 It had been deserted by the inhabitants, in consequence of the ser- 
pents that infested it. So Wagner. Heyne refers the epithet to its 
Laconian extraction. See Servius. B. 



342 JENEID. b. x. 577—615. 

ently see them raging with such impetuosity : on he rushed, 
and majestic stood before them with his lance opposed. To 
whom Liger [said], You see not here the steeds of Diomede, 
nor the chariot of Achilles, or the plains of Troy : now on this 
ground shall a period to the war and thy life be given. Such 
words from raving Liger fly : but somewhat instead of words 
the Trojan hero in return prepares ; for against his foe a javelin 
he hurls. As Lucagus stooping forward to the lash with a dart 
urged his yoked steeds, while with his left foot thrown out be- 
fore he prepares himself for the fight ; the spear passes through 
the lowest border of his shining buckler, then pierces his left 
groin : tossed from the chariot in the pangs of death he wal- 
lows ; whom pious .ZEneas in bitter terms addresses : Lucagus, 
it is not the slowness of thy steeds in flight thy chariot hath 
betrayed, nor have empty shadows turned them from the foe : 
thyself springing from the wheels, desertest the chariot. Thus 
having said, he seized the steeds. His hapless brother, leap- 
ing down from the same car, stretched forth his defenceless 
hands: By thy own self, O Trojan hero, by the parents who 
begot thee thus illustrious, spare this life, and pity a wretch 
who begs for mercy. To whom, pleading at greater length, 
^ZEneas : It was not language like this you lately uttered : die, 
and brother desert not brother. Then with the pointed steel 
he discloses his breast, the latent seat of the soul. 36 Such 
havoc made the Trojan chief over the field, raging like an im- 
petuous flood or gloomy whirlwind. At length the boy As- 
eanius and the youth, in vain blocked up, sally forth and quit 
the camp. 

Meanwhile Jupiter, of his own free motion, thus addresses 
Juno : My sister, and my dearest consort both ! it is Venus, 
as you alleged, who supports the Trojan powers : nor does 
your judgment deceive you ; no active hands for war have the 
men themselves, no souls courageous or patient of danger. 
To whom Juno, all submission, [says,] My spouse, in whom 
all beauty dwells, why dost thou tease me oppressed with an- 
guish, and dreading thy severe mandates ? Had I that influ- 
ence over your affection which once I had, and which it 
became me to have, thou the Omnipotent couldst not surely 
refuse me this ; that I might have it in my power both to res- 

36 Davidson has happily anticipated the explanation of Jacobs, regard- 
ing " latebras animae " as in apposition with " pectus," not vice versa. B 



b. x. 616—652. ^ENEID. 343 

cue Turnus from the fight, and preserve him in safety for his 
father Daunus. Now let him die, and glut the vengeance of 
the Trojans with his pious blood; yet from our stock he de- 
rives his name, and Pilumnus is his father in the fourth de- 
gree : and often with liberal hand and many offerings has he 
heaped thy courts. To whom the sovereign of the ethereal 
heaven thus briefly speaks : If you plead for a respite from 
present death, and a breathing-time to the short-lived youth, 
and if it be thy will that I should settle it thus ; bear off 
Turnus by flight, and save him from impending fate. Thus 
far to indulge thee is allowed. But if any higher favour be 
couched under these petitions, and you imagine that the whole 
face of the war is to be shifted or reversed, you feed yourself 
with empty hopes. To whom Juno [replies] with tears : 
What if thou shouldst grant with thy heart what in words 
thou declinest, and this life to Turnus were to be continued 
fixed ? Now a woeful end awaits the guiltless youth, or vain 
are my pretensions to the truth : but oh that I may rather be 
with groundless fears misled, and that thou, to whom the 
power belongs, mayest alter thy purposes for the better !, 

When she had pronounced these words, forthwith she shot 
down from the lofty sky arrayed in a cloud, driving storm and 
tempest through the air; and sought the Trojan army and 
Latin camp. Then of a hollow cloud, strange monster to be- 
hold ! the goddess, in the shape of ^ZEneas, dresses up in Tro- 
jan armour an airy powerless phantom, and imitates to the life 
both his shield and the crested helmet of his divine head ; 
gives it empty words, and gives it sound without sense, and 
counterfeits his gait as he walks ; such as those forms which 
after death are said to flutter about, or those dreams which 
mock the slumbering senses. But the phantom frisky exults 
before the foremost ranks, and the hero with darts provokes, 
and with the tongue defies : on whom Turnus presses, and at 
a distance hurls a hissing spear : the spectre, wheeling about, 
turned its steps. But then, as soon as Turnus imagined that 
-ZEneas with his back turned was giving ground, and boisterous 
in soul drank in vain hope, [he cried out,] -ZEneas, whither 
dost thou fly ? Desert not thy plighted nuptials : by this right 
hand shall the settlement be given you in quest of which you 
have traversed the seas. Thus vociferating, he pursues him, 
Lud brandishes his naked sword ; nor sees that the winds bear 
his joys away. 



344 J5NEID. b. x. 6536—91 

By chance there stood a ship adjoining to the margin of a 
steep rock with extended ladders, and a bridge prepared, in 
which king Osinius had been wafted from the Clusian shores. 
Hither in fearful haste the image of .ZEneas flying throws it- 
self into a hiding-place : and Turnus with no less speed pur- 
sues ; surmounts all obstacles, and overleaps the lofty bridges. 
Scarcely had he reached the prow, when Saturnia bursts the 
cable, and over the rolling waves hurries the vessel torn away 
from the shore. But him absent .ZEneas with impatience to 
the combat seeks ; and many a hero whom he meets on the 
way he despatches to the shades below. Then the fleeting 
image now no further concealment seeks, but soaring aloft 
blended itself with a dusky cloud ; when in the mean time the 
whirlwind drives Turnus on the mid-ocean. Back he casts 
his eyes quite at a loss, and thankless for his preservation, and 
both hands to heaven he raises with his voice : Almighty Fa- 
ther, couldst thou judge me worthy of such criminal shame, 
and appoint me to suffer such punishment ? Whither am I 
borne ? Whence am I come ? What ignominious flight carries 
me off, and in what disgrace will it bring me back ? Shall I 
again venture to behold the walls of Laurentum, or the Auso- 
nian camp ? What will that band of warriors [say], who fol- 
lowed me and my arms, and whom, O foul impiety ! I aban- 
doned in horrible death ? And now I see them straggling, and 
hear the groans of the falling. What can I do? or what 
earth will now yawn deep enough for me ? Or rather, on me, 
ye winds, have pity ; on rocks, on crags (I Turnus heartily 
entreat you) drive my vessel, and fling it on the cruel shelves 
of quicksands, whither neither the Rutulians nor conscious 
fame may follow me. So saying, now hither, now thither, he 
fluctuates in his soul, whether frantic he shall sheathe the 
pointed steel in his bosom on account of such a flagrant dis- 
grace, and through his sides drive home the cruel sword, or 
throw himself into the midst of the waves, by swimming seek 
the winding shore, and rush again amidst the Trojan arms. 
Thrice he essayed either expedient : thrice mightiest Juno 
restrained, and pitying him from her soul checked the youth. 
He glides away, cutting the deep, with prosperous wind and 
tide, and is wafted to the ancient city of his father Daunus. 

Meanwhile, by Jove's suggestion, furious Mezentius suc- 
ceeds [him] in the fight, and assaults the Trojans flushed with 
success. The Tuscan troops rush on him at once, and with 



B. x. 692-722. JENEID, 345 

all their rage and darts following press on him, on him alone. 
He [stands firm] as a rock that projects into the vast ocean, 
obnoxious to the fury of the winds, and exposed to the main, 
and endures all the violence and threatenings of the sky and 
sea, itself remaining unmoved. He stretches on the ground 
Hebrus, the son of Dolicaon, with him Latagus and fugitive 
Palmus ; but to Latagus with a rock and vast fragment of a 
mountain he gives a preventing blow on his jaws and adverse 
face : Palmus hamstrung he suffers to roll inactive ; and gives 
Lausus 37 to wear his armour on his shoulders, and on his hel- 
met's top to fix his plumes. Evas the Phrygian too [he ovei- 
throws], and Mimas, the companion of Paris., and his equal 
in age ; whom Theano brought forth to his father Amycus in 
the same night that queen Hecuba, the daughter of Cisseus, 
pregnant with a firebrand, bore Paris : he in his native 
city buried lies, while the Laurentine coast possesses Mimas 
unknown. And as a huge 38 boar by baying hounds pursued 
from the high mountains, (while pine-bearing Yesulus 39 had 
sheltered for many years, and the lake of Laurentum,) that in 
the reedy wood had fed, makes a stand soon as he has arrived 
among the toils, ferocious roars aloud, and bristles up his 
shoulders : nor has any one the courage to venture boldly 
or approach near him, but aloof they ply him with darts and 
shouts secure from harm: 40 undaunted, however, he resists 
their attacks on every side, gnashing his tusks, and shakes the 
lances from his back : in the same manner, of those whom j ust 
rage against Mezentius fires, not one has spirit to encounter 
him with the naked sword ; at a distance they gall him with 
missile weapons and loud clamour. From the ancient coasts 
of Corytus had Acron come, a Grecian, who deserted [to 
-ZEneas], leaving his nuptials unconsummated : him when from 
far Mezentius saw breaking through the midst of the ranks, 
gaily arrayed in the plumes and purple favours of his be- 

37 Lausus, a son of king Mezentius, killed by iEneas. Mimas, a Tro- 
jan, son of Amycus and Theano, and the intimate friend of Paris. He 
accompanied iEneas to Italy, and was slain by Mezentius. 

38 " Antiqui ille, vel magnitudini, vel nobilitati adsignabant." Servius. 
See, however, Anthon's note. B. 

39 Vesulus, (Viso,) a large mountain in the range of the Alps, between 
Liguria and Gaul, where the Po takes its rise. 

40 Compare Silius v. 442, " propioremque addere Martem Haud ausum 
cuiquam, laxo ceu bellua campo Incessebatur tutis ex agmine telis." B. 



346 ^ENEID. e. x. 723—761 

trothed spouse ; as a famished lion that often ranges over the 
loft j stalls, (for maddening hunger prompts him,) if by chance 
he espies a timorous goat, or stag conspicuous for stately horns, 
exults yawning hideously, rears his hair on end, and couch- 
ing down over [his prey], fast to the entrails clings, black 
gore laves his ravenous jaws: thus Mezentius rushes with 
alacrity on the embodied foes. Ill-fated Acron is overthrown, 
and expiring spurns with his heels the tawny ground, and with 
his blood besmears the broken lance. The same deigned not 
to cut off Orodes as he fled, or with the darted spear to give 
him a wound unseen : but, overtaking him, he confronted face 
to face, and encountered man to man ; superior not in strata- 
gem, but valiant arms. Then, trampling on him overthrown, 
and resting on his lance, [he says] : Friends, stately Orodes 
lies no mean portion of the war. His associates in acclama- 
tion join, repeating the joyful psean. But he expiring [says] : 
Whoever thou art, not over me unrevenged, nor long shalt 
thou victorious rejoice; thee too like destiny awaits, and soon 
shalt thou on these same fields be stretched. To whom Me- 
zentius, smiling with a mixture of indignation, [replied] : Now 
die ; but of me let the father of gods and king of men dis- 
pose. So saying, he from the body outdrew the dart. Cruel 
slumbers and the iron sleep of death press down his eyes ; his 
eyes are sealed in everlasting night. 41 Casdicus slays Alca- 
thous, Sacrator, Hydaspes, Rapo Parthenius, and Orses ex- 
tremely robust in strength; Messapus [kills] Clonius, and 
Ericetes the Lycaonian ; the one by a fall from his unruly 
steed thrown on the ground ; the other on foot himself on foot 
[assailed : against him] Lycian Agis too had stepped forth ; 
but him Valerius, not lacking of the valour of his ancestors, 
overthrows : Anthronius by Salius falls, and Salius by Neal- 
ces, skilled in the javelin and far-deceiving arrow. Now stern 
Mars equalled the distresses and mutual deaths : the victors 
and the vanquished equally slew, and equally fell : nor these, 
nor those, know what it is to fly. In the courts of Jove the 
gods compassionate the fruitless rage of both, and [seem to. 
lament] that such toils are appointed to mortals. On the one 
side Venus, on the other Saturnian Juno sits spectator. Pale 
Tisiphone in the midst of thousands wreaks her fury. 

41 I almost prefer the ablative, as in Ovid Ep. x. 113. See Burm. oc 
Propert. ii. 10, 17. B. 



b. x. 762—796 JENEID. 347 

But now Mezentius all turbulent and boisterous advances in 
the field, brandishing his massy spear ; as huge Orion, when 
on foot he marches, cutting his way through the vast watery 
fields of the mid-ocean, with his shoulder overtops the waves ; 
or, conveying an aged ash from the high mountains, stalks on 
the ground, and hides his head among the clouds ; just so Me- 
zentius in vast armour strides along. Him on the other hand 
JEneas, having descried him in the long battalion, prepares 
to encounter. He unterrified remains expecting his mag- 
nanimous foe, and stands firm in his own vast mass of frame ; 
and, measuring with his eye as much space as his javelin 
could reach, [says,] Now let this right hand, my god, and the 
missile weapon 42 which I poise, be my aid ; I vow that you, 
my own Lausus, shall be clad in the spoils torn from the 
pirate's body, the trophy of ^Eneas. He said, and hurled from 
afar the hissing dart : but the winged dart is by the shield 
flung off, and deep pierces illustrious Antores between the side 
and flank ; Antores, the attendant of Hercules, who from Ar- 
gos sent had joined Evander, and settled in his Italian city. 
He falls, unhappy, by another's wound, looks up to heaven, 
and in death remembers his beloved Argos. Then pious 
-ZEneas darts his spear : through the concave orb of triple 
brass, through the linen folds, and the work with three bulls' 
hides 43 inwoven, it made way, and settled low down in the 
groin ; but had spent its force. Instantly ./Eneas, over- 
joyed at seeing the Tuscan blood, snatches his sword from 
his thigh, and darts impetuous on his confused foe. Lausus, 
soon as he saw it, heaved a deep groan in fond pity to his be- 
loved sire, and the tears came trickling down his cheeks. 
Here be assured I shall not pass in silence either thee, praise- 
worthy youth, or the catastrophe of thy piteous death, or thy 
deeds, thou best of sons, if any future age will give credit to 
an act so noble. The father, drawing back his steps, quite 
disabled and encumbered, gave ground, and in his buckler 
trailed the hostile spear. The youth sprang forward, and 
flung himself amidst the armed troops ; and stood under the 






42 See my note on ^Esch. Sept; c. Th. p. 51, ed. Bohn. B. 

43 Observe the metaphor by which the animal itself is put for its hide. 
Lucan iv. 133, " csesoque induta juvenco." Statius Theb. " clipeum tes- 
tisse juvenco." B. 



348 ^XEID. b. x. 797—830. 

point of JEneas' sword, just as he was rising with his arm, 
and fetching the stroke ; and keeping him awhile at bay, sus- 
tained the shock. His friends second him with loud acclama- 
tion, till, by the target of the son protected, the father with- 
drew ; fling showers of darts, and at a distance repel the foe 
with missile weapons. iEneas storms, and keeps himself 
under covert [of his shield]. And as, if at times the clouds 
in a drift of hail rush down, every labouring hind flies from 
the fields away, and every swain, and the 'traveller lurks in 
some secure retreat, either on the banks of a river, or in the 
cleft of a high rock, the shower be overblown, that on the 
earth, when the sun returns, they may be able to pursue the 
labours of the day : just so ^Eneas, with darts from every 
quarter overwhelmed, sustains the whole storm of war, till 
the thunder spends its rage ; and chides Lausus, and threatens 
him thus : Whither dost thou rush to thy own destruction, 
and why dost thou attempt what exceeds thy strength ? Thy 
pious duty blindfolds thee unguarded. He infatuated still 
braves [the hero] no less. And now the fierce wrath of the 
Trojan leader rises to a greater height, and the Destinies to 
Lausus collect the last threads [of life] ; for ^Eneas through 
the middle of his body plunges his mighty sword into the 
youth, and buries it to the hilt. 44 The pointed steel pierced 
both through the thin shield, the light armour of the vaunting 
youth, and the vest, which with soft thread of gold his mother 
had spun ; and the blood filled his bosom : then to the shades 
his soul fled mourning through the air, and left the body. But 
soon as the offspring of Anchises saw his visage and dying 
looks, his looks wondrously pale, in pity he drew a heavy 
groan, and stretched forth his hand; and the image of his 
filial piety touched his soul. Lamented youth, what recom- 
pence for those virtues, what honour becoming so great ex- 
cellence, shall pious iEneas on thee now confer ? Thy arms, 
wherein thou rejoiced, still retain: and to the manes and 
ashes of thy parents, if that be any object of thy care, I re- 
sign thee. Yet, hapless one, with this thou shalt solace thy 
wretched death ; by the hand of great JEneas thou fallest. 45 

44 " Totum " seems equivalent to " capulo tenus." B. 
44 Compare Ovid Met. viii. 7, " Magnaque dat nobis tantus solatia 
victor." B. 



B. x. 830—863. .3SNEID. 349 

Then straight he chides his lingering followers, and from the 
ground raises up the youth, with his blood marring his locks 
in comely order dressed. 

Meanwhile the father at the stream of the river Tiber 
stanched his wounds with water, 46 and gave a more easy pos- 
ture to his body, leaning on the trunk of a tree. From the 
boughs apart his brazen helmet hangs, and his unwieldy arms 
rest on the mead. Chosen youths around him stand ; himself 
faint, panting for breath, eases his drooping neck, having 
spread on his breast a length of waving beard. Of Lausus he 
incessantly inquires, and many messengers he sends again and 
again to recall him [from the fight], and bear to him the 
orders of his afflicted father. But his weeping friends were 
carrying lifeless Lausus on their arms, a mighty corpse, and 
with mighty wound overthrown. 47 

The ill-boding mind [of Mezentius] at a distance under- 
stood their groans. His hoary locks with vile dust he de- 
forms, to heaven stretches both his hands, and fast to the body 
clings : O my son, was I with such fond desire of life pos- 
sessed, to suffer him whom I begot to substitute himself for 
me to the foe's right hand ? by these wounds of thine am I 
thy father saved, living by thy death ? Alas ! now at length 
on wretched me my exile heavy lies, now a wound is driven 
deep home. I too, my son, the same have by my guilt sullied 
thy fame, for odious misdeeds driven from my throne and pa- 
ternal sceptre. It is I that to my country owed satisfaction, 
and to the odium of my subjects ought to have forfeited my 
guilty life by every kind of death. And still I live : nor yet 
from men and light withdraw : but I will withdraw. Then 
with these w r ords he raises himself on his maimed thigh ; and, 
though the violent smart of the deep wound retards him, yet, 
not cast down, he orders his courser to be brought. This was 
his glory, this his solace ; by this he came off victorious in all 
his wars. The sympathizing animal he bespeaks, and thus 
begins : Long, Rhoebus, have we lived, if aught can be said 
to subsist long with mortals. To-day you shall either vic- 
torious bear away the head of iEneas, and those spoils all 

46 That this was the customary treatment, we learn from Celsus v. 26. 
Athenaeus ii. 4. B. 

47 So Silius v. 524, " Interea exanimem mcesti super arma SychEeum 
Portabant Poeni, corpusque in castra ferebant." B. 



350 ^ENEID. b. x. 864—899 

bathed in his blood, and with me avenge the griefs of Lausus ; 
or, if no efforts open a way, you shall fall with me : for never, 
I presume, wilt thou, most generous, deign to bear the com- 
mands of another, and a Trojan lord. He said ; and received 
on his back, placed his limbs on the accustomed seat, and with 
pointed javelins loaded each hand, his head gleaming with 
brass, and roughly garnished with a crest of horse-hair. Thus 
with rapid speed he drove into the midst. Deep in his heart 
boils overwhelming shame : and frantic rage, with intermin- 
gled grief, and love racked with furious despair, and con- 
scious worth : and here thrice with loud voice he called iEneas. 
JEneas knew him well; and, pleased [with the challenge, 
thus] his prayer addresses : So may that great father of the 
gods, so may exalted Apollo influence thee to begin the com- 
bat. This only he said, and with his menacing spear ad- 
vances against him. But he [exclaimed], Most barbarous 
man, why thinkest thou to affright me, now that my son is 
snatched from me ? This was the only way whereby thou 
couldst destroy me. I neither fear death, nor any of your 
gods regard. Forbear threats : now I am come to die, but 
first to thee these gifts I bring. He said, and hurled a dart 
against the foe ; then after that another and another he fixes 
fast, and flies around in a spacious circuit ; but the golden 
boss sustains the shock. Thrice round JEneas, as he stood 
against him, he rode in circles to the left, throwing javelins 
with his hand; thrice the Trojan hero, [wheeling as he 
wheels,] bears about with him in his brazen shield a frightful 
grove [of spears]. And now when he is tired with spinning 
out so long delays, and drawing out so many darts, and when 
he is severely harassed, being engaged in an unequal fight, 
revolving many thoughts in his mind, at length he springs 
forth, and between the hollow temples of the warrior-steed 
darts his lance. The horse raises himself upright, then with 
his heels buffets the air, and falling upon his dismounted 
rider, keeps him down, and falling forward, overlays his 
prostrate shoulder. The Trojans and Latins both with ac- 
clamations rend the sky. JEneas flies to him, and snatches his 
sword from the scabbard, and over him these [words pro- 
nounces] : Where is now the stern Mezentius ? where is that 
wild impetuosity of soul ? On the other hand, the Tuscan, as 
soon as lifting up his eyes to heaven he began to breathe the 



i. t. 900—908. xi. 1—15. .ENEID 351 

air, and recover his senses, [said,] Despiteful foe, why insult- 
est thou and threatenest death ? There is no crime in shed- 
ding my blood ; nor engaged I in the combat on such terms 
[that you should spare my life], nor did my Lausus make 
such a contract with you on my behalf. One thing I implore, 
by that grace, if any grace to a vanquished foe belongs, suffer 
my body to be covered with earth. I know the cruel resent- 
ment of my subjects besets me round; 48 defend me, I pray 
you, from this outrage, and to a grave consign me in part- 
nership with my son. He said, and in his throat, not unpre- 
pared, receives the blade, and pours forth life in the blood 
streaming on his armour. 



BOOK XL 

In the Eleventh Book, the funeral of Pallas is solemnized. Latinus, in 
council, attempts a reconciliation with iEneas, which is prevented by Tur- 
nus, and by the hostile approach of the Trojan army. Camilla greatly 
signalizes herself, but is at last slain, when night puts an end to the 
combat. 

Meanwhile Aurora rising left the ocean. ^Eneas, though 
both his cares strongly urge him to allot time for interring 
his friends, and his mind is disturbed by the death [of Pallas], 
yet, in consequence of his victory, paid to the gods his vows 
soon as the dawn appeared. } A huge oak, with its boughs 
on every side lopped off, he erected on a rising ground, and 
adorned it with shining arms, the spoils of king Mezentius : 
to thee a trophy, thou great warrior-god ! He fits [to the 
trunk] his crest dripping with blood, and the hero's shattered 
arms, and his breastplate in twice six places dented and trans- 
fixed ; and to the left arm he fastens his target of brass, and 
from the neck suspends his ivory-hilted sword. Then thus 
beginning he encourages his joyous friends (for all the chiefs 
in a crowded body enclosed him) : Warriors, our most import- 
ant work is done : henceforth all fear be banished. For 
what remains, these are the spoils, the first-fruits of victory 

48 He feared that they would deprive him of sepulture. B. 

1 Servius well remarks that those who were polluted by a funeral could 
not make offerings to the gods, until they had been purified. If, how- 
ever, as in the present case, a man was bound to the performance of both 
duties, he first made his offering, and then engaged in the funeral rites. 



352 JENEID. 



B. xi. lu — 5c, 



won from that insolent tyrant ; and to this state Mezentius is 
by my arm reduced. Now to the king and the walls of La- 
tium our way lies open : make ready your arms, and with 
stout hearts and hopes anticipate the war, that obstacles may 
not detain you unawares, or deliberation, resulting from fear, 
retard you, slow of movement, when first the gods permit us 
to pluck up the standard, and to lead forth the youth from 
the camp. Meanwhile let us commit to earth the unburied 
corpses of our friends ; which is the sole honour in deep Ache- 
ron. Go, he says, with the last duties grace those illustrious 
souls who for us have won this country with their blood ; and 
first to the mourning city of Evander let Pallas be conveyed, 
whom, not deficient in prowess, a gloomy inauspicious day cut 
off, and sank in an untimely death. Thus weeping he speaks, 
and to the threshold takes his way, where aged Acoetes 
watched the corpse of lifeless Pallas laid out : Acoetes, who 
formerly was armour-bearer to Arcadian Evander, and now 
with less auspicious omens came [to the war], appointed 
guardian to his darling foster-son. The whole retinue of his 
servants stood around, a band of Trojans and mourning dames 
of Ilium, with tresses in usual form dishevelled. But soon as 
.iEneas entered the lofty gates, beating their breasts they 
raise to heaven a mighty groan, and the palace rings with 
mournful lamentation. When he himself beheld the bolstered 
head and face of Pallas, white and cold as snow, and in his 
smooth breast the gaping wound of the Ausonian spear, he 
thus with gushing tears begins : Lamented youth, how envious 
was Fortune, just when she began to smile, to snatch thee 
from me, that thou should st not see my kingdom, nor be borne 
victorious to thy paternal dwelling ! Not such things of thee 
I at parting promised to thy sire Evander, when taking leave 
of me with embraces, he sent me against a mighty empire, 
and trembling warned me that the enemy were fierce, and 
that the battle would be with a sturdy nation. And now he 
indeed, highly possessed with empty hope, is, perhaps, both 
making vows, and loading the altars with offerings ; while we 
in grief with unavailing, pomp attend the youth, a lifeless 
corpse, and now released from his allegiance to the powers 
above. Ill-fated sire, thou shalt see the dismal funeral of thy 
owii son ! Is it thus we return ? are these our hoped-for tri- 
umphs? this my boasted confidence? Yet, Evander, thou 



n. xi. 5G— 93. ^NEID. 353 

plialt not see him with inglorious wounds repulsed; nor on 
thy son, thus saved, shalt thou, in spite of paternal affection, 
imprecate an accursed death. Ah me, how glorious a pro- 
tector thou, Ausonia, and thou, lulus, [in him] hast lost ! 

When he had thus vented his grief, he orders them to bear 
away the woeful corpse, and sends a thousand men, selected 
from the whole army, to accompany these last honours, and 
bear a part in the parent's tears ; small consolation for such 
mighty woe, but due to the unhappy sire ! others with for- 
ward zeal weave hurdles, and a pliant bier of arbute rods and 
oaken twigs, and with a covering of boughs shade the bed 
high raised. Here on the rural couch aloft they raise the 
youth : like a flower, either of the tender violet or drooping 
hyacinth, cropped by a virgin's hand, 2 from which not the gay 
bloom, or its own fair form, hath yet departed; the parent 
soil no longer feeds it, or supplies it with strength. Then 
two vests, stiff with embroidery of gold and purple, JEneas 
brought forth ; which formerly Sidonian Dido, pleased with 
the task, with her own hands for him had wrought, and striped 
the stuff with slender threads of gold. In one of these, the 
last ornament, he sorrowful arrays the youth, and muffles up 
in a veil his hair devoted to the flames. Besides, he piles up 
many prizes of the Laurentine war, and orders the booty to 
be led in long procession. He adds the steeds and arms 
whereof he despoiled the foe. And to their backs he had 
bound the hands of those whom to his shade as offering he 
would send, to sprinkle with their shed blood the flame ; and 
the chiefs themselves he commands to bear trunks of trees 
decked with hostile arms, and the names of the enemies to be 
inscribed upon them. Unhappy Accetes, worn out with age, 
is led, now with his fists tearing his breasts, now with his 
nails his face ; and bending forward with his whole body, he 
lies prostrate on the ground. His chariots too they lead be- 
smeared with Rutulian blood. Next his warrior-horse, JEthon, 
his trappings laid aside, moves on weeping, and with the big 
drops bedews his cheeks. Others bear his spear and helmet : 
for of the rest victorious Turnus is possessed. Then in 
mournful plight, the phalanx, the Trojan and the Tuscan 
leaders follow, and the Arcadians with inverted arms. After 

* Propert. i. 20, 39, " Quae modo decerpens tenero pueriliter ungui 
Proposito florem prsetulit officio." B. 

2 A 



354 ^NEID. b. xi. 94—129. 

the whole body of attendants had advanced before in long pro- 
cession, ^3Eneas paused, and with a deep groan subjoined these 
words : We to other scenes of woe, by the same horrid fate of 
war, are summoned hence. Farewell for ever, illustrious Pal- 
las, and adieu for ever. This said, he bent his course to the 
high walls, and directed his steps back to the camp. 

And now from the city of king Latinus ambassadors came 
bearing olive boughs, supplicating grace [from ^Eneas] ; that 
he would deliver to them the bodies [of their dead], which by 
the sword lay scattered over the field, and permit them to be 
entombed in the earth ; [alleging] that with the vanquished 
and the lifeless war is at an end ; [and hoping] that he would 
spare a people to whose hospitality and alliance he was once 
invited. 

Whom, not unreasonable in their demands, the courteous 
JEneas receives with grace, and adds these words : What un- 
deserved fate, ye Latins, hath involved you in so disastrous a 
Avar, who thus decline us your friends ? Is it for the dead, 
and the slain by the chance of war, you implore peace ? I truly 
would grant it to the living too. I should not have come 
hither unless the Fates had here assigned my settlement and 
place or residence ; nor with the [Latin] nation wage I war. 
With us your king renounced hospitality, and rather trusted 
himself to the arms of Turnus. More just had it been for 
Turnus to expose himself to this death. If to terminate the 
war by personal valour, if to expel the Trojans, he intends, me 
in these arms he ought to have encountered : he [of us two] 
had lived, to whom God or his own right hand had given life. 
Now go, and under your unfortunate countrymen apply the 
funeral fire. JEneas said. They in silence stood astonished, 
and turning held their eyes and faces to each other. 

Then aged Drances, 3 who still by calumny and invectives 
vented his animosity on young Turnus, thus replies in turn : 
Trojan hero, mighty in fame, but mightier still in arms, by what 
praises shall I exalt thee to heaven ? which shall I most admire, 
thy justice or thy achievements in war ? We truly with grate- 
ful hearts will bear this answer back to our city ; and, if any 
fortune shall open the way, will associate thee to king Latinus : 
let Turnus seek alliances for himself. We will even with 

3 Drances, a friend of king Latinus, remarkable for his eloquence and 
weakness. 



b. xi. 130—163. ^NEID. 355 

pleasure rear up the fabric of your destined walls, and on our 
shoulders bear the stones of Troy. 

He said ; and all with one voice murmured their assent. 
They settled a truce for twice six days : and during the inter- 
mediate 4 peace, Trojans and Latins promiscuous without hos- 
tility ranged the woods along the mountains. Felled by the 
two-edged steel the ash crashes ; pines shot up to the stars 
they overthrow ; they neither cease to cleave with wedges the 
oaken planks and fragrant cedar, nor to convey in groaning 
waggons the mountain-ashes. 

And now flying fame, the harbinger of so great woe, fills 
Evander and Evander's palace and city ; fame, which just now 
to Latium bore the news that Pallas was victorious. The Ar- 
cadians rush to the gates, and, as the ancient manner was, 
snatched up funeral torches. With a long train of flames the 
path all shines, and far and wide illuminates 5 the fields. The 
band of Trojans advancing opposite to them join the lamenting 
troops ; whom, soon as the matrons beheld approaching the 
walls, they inflame the mourning city with their shrieks. But 
no force can restrain Evander from rushing through the midst. 
The bier being laid down, on Pallas he falls prostrate, and 
with sobs and groans clings to [the corpse] ; and at length with 
much ado for grief is a passage opened to these words : These, 
O Pallas, are not the promises thou gavest thy parent, that 
with more caution thou wouldst trust thyself to the savage 
combat. I was not ignorant how far rising glory in arms, and 
the bewitching renown of the first action, might carry you. 
Ah ! fatal to the youth his first essays, hard his probation in 
early war ! Alas ! my vows and prayers by none of the gods 
regarded ! Thou most holy partner of my bed, happy in thy 
death, and not to this woe reserved ; whilst I by living on have 
overpassed my natural bounds to remain a childless father. 6 
When I followed the confederate arms of Troy, the Rutulians 
should have overwhelmed me with their darts : my life I had 
resigned, and me, not Pallas, this pomp had home con- 

4 "Media: nam que sequester est aut medius inter duos altercantes; 
aut ad quem aliquid ad tempus seponitur." Servius. B. 

5 Literally, " renders distinguishable. " B. 

* Literally, "surviving [my own son]." This was thought a severe 
misfortune. So Plautus, " Ita ut tuum vis unicum gnatum tuae superesse 
vitae, sospitem et superstitem." B. 

2 a 2 



356 JENEID. b. xi. 164—137. 

veyed. Nor you, ye Trojans, will I accuse, nor your alliance, 
nor those right hands we joined in hospitable league : this 
stroke of fortune was destined for my old age. However, if 
untimely death awaited my son, it will be some satisfaction, 
that ushering the Trojans into Latium he fell, having first 
slain thousands of the Yolscians. And now with no other 
funeral obsequies, O Pallas, can I grace thee, than what pious 
JEneas, and the noble Trojans, the Tuscan leaders, and whole 
army of the Tuscans, [have given thee]. Thy illustrious 
trophies they bear, those whom to death thy right hand offered. 
Thou too, O Turnus, shouldst have stood [among them] a 
huge trunk in arms, had my age been equal, and my strength 
from years the same. But why do I, hapless one, detain the 
Trojans from the war? Go, and faithfully bear back these 
mandates to your king : If I linger out a hated life, after Pal- 
las is slain, it is in consequence of thy [avenging] right hand ; 
from which you see Turnus is justly due to a son and sire. 
This post [of honour] is alone reserved for thee and thy 
fortune. It is not joy in life I seek, nor is it fit I should ; 
but I wish to bear the tidings to my son down to the shades 
below. 

Meanwhile to wretched mortals Aurora had brought forth 
the benignant light, renewing the works and labours [of the 
day]. 7 Now father -ZEneas, now Tarchon, on the winding 
shore erected funeral piles. Hither they conveyed, each after 
the manner of his ancestors, the bodies of their dead ; and the 
sad 8 fires being applied under them, the lofty sky with smoke 
is hidden in darkness. Thrice round the blazing piles they 
ran, clad in shining armour; thrice they encompassed the 
mournful funeral fire on horseback, and sent forth doleful yells. 
With their tears is the earth bedewed, bedewed are their arms. 
The shrieks of men and clang of trumpets pierce through the 
sky. Next into the fire some throw the spoils torn from the 
Latins slain, helmets, and gleaming swords, bits, and glowing 
wheels : some, well-known gifts, their own bucklers and un- 
successful darts. Many heads of oxen all around are offered 

7 Cf. Quintus Calab. vi. 4, tol £' tig ipya rpairovro /3porol pua 
<p6Lvv9evTeg. B. 

8 This is the usual interpretation of " atris ignibus," but I think it is 
far more natural to understand, " dark, pitchy flames." So Eur. Troad, 
550, do/xoig de Trafjupaeg crkXag Trvpbg fxkXaivav a'iyXav "EdwKav. B. 



b. xi. 198—235 /ENEID. 357 

victims to death ; and over the flames they stab bristly boars, 
and sheep snatched from all the fields : then along the whole 
shore they view their burning friends, and watch their half- 
consumed piles : nor can they be torn from them, before humid 
night inverts the face of heaven, bespangled with shining 
stars. 

Nor with less care the sorrowing Latins in a different quar- 
ter reared numberless piles ; and they partly bury in the earth 
many bodies of their heroes, and part carried off they to the 
neighbouring fields convey, and send back to the city. The 
rest, and a vast heap of promiscuous slaughter, without num- 
ber and without honour, they burn : then on all sides the spa- 
cious fields, as rivalling each other, blaze together with frequent 
fires. The third day's light had from the sky removed the 
chill shades : when in sadness they huddled together on the 
hearths the heaped-up ashes and bones mingled in confusion, 
and loaded them with a warm mound of earth. Bat now in 
the courts of opulent Latinus, and in the city, is the chief up- 
roar, and by far the deepest scene of mourning. Here mothers 
and hapless brides, here tender-hearted sisters in deep anguish, 
and striplings of their sires bereft, curse the rueful war, and 
the nuptials of Turnus ; and himself they urge by arms, him- 
self by the sword, to decide the quarrel, since for himself alone 
he claims the crown of Italy and the first honours. These the 
malicious Drances aggravates, and protests that Turnus alone 
is called, alone is challenged to the combat. On the other side 
the votes of many, in various speech, are given for Turnus, 
and him the queen's illustrious name protects ; and his own 
distinguished fame, for trophies justly won, supports the hero. 

Amidst these commotions, in the heat of this raging tumult, 
lo ! to complete the distress, the ambassadors, from Diomede's 
imperial city [returning] sorrowful, bring their answer; that 
nothing was effected by all the expense of so great labour ; 
that neither the gifts, nor gold, nor importunate prayers, had 
aught availed ; that the Latins must have recourse to other 
arms, or sue for peace from the Trojan prince. With great 
grief king Latinus himself faints away. The wrath of the 
gods, and the recent tombs before his face, declare that 
iEneas, the messenger of fate, is led on by a manifest divine 
impulse. 

Therefore within the lofty palace he assembles his great 



358 tENEID. b. xi. 236—266 

council, and the peers of his realm, summoned by his imperial 
order. They meet together, and flock to the royal apartments 
along the crowded ways. In the centre, with unjoyous as- 
pect, sits Latinus, both most advanced in age, and first in 
sway And here he orders the ambassadors now returned 
from the ^Etolian city, to say what message they bring back, 
and demands each particular answer in its order. Then si- 
lence sat on every tongue ; and Yenulus thus, in obedience to 
command, begins : We have seen, citizens, Diomede and 
the Argive camp, and measuring a length of way, have over- 
passed a thousand dangers, and touched that hand by which 
Troy's kingdom fell. He victorious was raising in the plains 
of Apulian G-arganus 9 the city Argyripa, 10 from the name of 
his native country. After we were admitted, and had per- 
mission given to speak in the presence, we first present our 
gifts ; declare our name and country ; who made war upon 
us ; what errand drew us to Arpi. Our message heard, he 
thus with mild accent replied : O happy nations, once Saturn's 
realm, ancient Ausonians, what fortune disturbs you peaceful, 
and prompts you to rouse unusual wars ? As many of us as 
with the sword violated the lands of Ilium, (I wave those ex- 
tremities which in fighting under its lofty walls we sustained, 
what illustrious heroes that Simois of theirs swept away,) have 
borne unutterable sufferings over the world, and all punish- 
ments for our crime ; a band whom even Priam would pity. 
Minerva's disastrous constellation knows, and the Euboean 
rocks, and vengeful Caphareus. 11 Ever since that expedition, 
have we on different coasts been driven ; Menelaus, the son 
of Atreus, is exiled as far as the pillars of Proteus ; 12 Ulysses 
hath seen the Cyclops of ^3Etna. Shall I mention [the tragic 
fate of] Neoptolemus' realms, and the overthrow of Idomeneus' 
settlement, or the [dispersion of the] Locri who inhabit Li- 
bya's coast? The prince of Mycenae 13 himself, the leader of 

9 Garganus (St, Angelo,) a lofty mountain of Apulia, projecting in the 
form of a promontory into the Adriatic Sea. 

10 Argyripa, or Arpi. 

11 Caphareus, (Cape D'Oro,) a lofty promontory on the south-east coast 
of Euboea, an island in the iEgean Sea. 

12 Proteus, a king of Egypt, on whose coasts Menelaus, in his return 
from the Trojan war, was forced by stress of weather. 

13 Prince of Mycenae, Agamemnon, who was chosen chief commander 
of the Grecian forces in the war against Troy. After the destruction ol 



i.. xi. 267—299 ^NEID. 359 

the illustrious Greeks, fell by the hand of his unnatural 14 
spouse, in the first entrance to his palace ; and his adulterous 
assassin by traitorous means lay in wait for the conqueror of 
Asia. 15 [Or shall I mention] how the envious gods forbade 
that I myself, restored to my native country, should see my 
much-loved spouse, and lovely Calydon ? Even now prodigies 
of horrid aspect pursue me ; my lost associates, into the aerial 
regions have winged their way, and, to birds transformed, 
wander along the rivers, (ah, dire vengeance on my friends !) 
and fill the rocks with doleful notes. And indeed I had rea- 
son to expect these calamities ever since that time, when with 
the sword I madly assaulted the celestial beings, and violated 
the hand of Venus with a wound. But urge me not, urge not 
me to fights like these: neither with the Trojans wage I any 
war, now that Troy is overthrown ; nor remember I with joy 
their former woes. Those gifts, which to me you brought 
from your native coasts, transfer to iEneas. We against his 
keen darts have stood, and engaged him hand to hand ; trust 
me, who by experience know how stern he rises to his shield, 
with what a whirl 16 he throws his lance. Had Ida's land 
produced two such heroes more, the Trojans had first ad- 
vanced to the cities of Inachus, and Greece by a reverse of 
fate would have mourned. Whatever obstruction was given 
at the walls of stubborn Troy, the victory of the Greeks was 
suspended by the hand of Hector and iEneas, and was re- 
tarded till the tenth year. Both for valour are distinguished, 
both for noble feats of arms ; this man in piety excels. Let 
your, right hands be joined in league, by whatever means it is 
permitted ; but beware of opposing arms to arms. Thus, best 
of kings, you have at once both heard his answer, and his re- 
solution on this important war. Scarcely had the deputies 
spoken, when through Ausonia's troubled sons a various noise 
ran ; as, when rocks retard a river's rapid course, from the 
pent-up flood a murmur arises, and with the beating waves 
the neighbouring banks resound. 

that city, Agamemnon returned to Argos, where he was murdered by his 
wife Clytemnestra and her paramour JEgisthus. 

14 For " infandae," Macrobius, Sat. iv. 4,*reads " infandum ! " which is 
approved by Burmann on Anthol. Lat. T. i. p. 196. B. 

15 See Anthon. The readings vary, since the time of Servius. B. 

16 So "ballistae turbine," Lucan. iii. 465; " directo turbine robur," 
Silmi iv. 542. B. 



360 ^NEID. b. xi. 300—335 

Soon as their minds were calmed, and their tumultuous 
tongues were hushed, the king, having first addressed the 
gods, from his lofty throne begins : I indeed could wish, ye 
Latins, and it had been better, that we had before determined 
on the common cause, and not to call a council at such a junc- 
ture, 17 when the foe lays siege to our walls. Incommodious 
war, O citizens, we wage with a nation of gods and heroes in- 
vincible, whom no battles tire out, and who, when vanquished, 
cannot lay down the sword. What hope you entertained from 
the invited arms of the JEtolians, now dismiss : each must be 
his own hope : but how feeble this is, you see. In what ruin 
the rest of our affairs are involved, all is by yourselves both 
seen and felt. Nor yet accuse I any : what the highest pitch 
of valour could, has been achieved ; with the whole strength 
of the realm we have struggled. Now then, (lend your atten- 
tion,) I will unfold, and briefly show what purpose rises in my 
doubtful soul. To me an ancient tract of land belongs, near 
the Tuscan river, in length extended to the west, even beyond 
Sicania's 18 bounds : the Auruncians and Eutulians sow, and 
harass with the share the stubborn hills, and turn to pasture 
their most rugged parts. Let this whole region, and the lofty 
mountain's piny tracts, be given away to the friendship of the 
Trojans ; and let us pronounce equal terms of peace, and, as 
our allies, invite them into our realms. Let them settle, if 
they have such strong desire, and build cities. But if they 
have a mind to take possession of other territories and another 
country, and if from our land they can withdraw, let us build 
twice ten ships of Italian timber, or more, if they are able to 
man them : all the materials lie along the river ; let them- 
selves order the number and fashion of the vessels ; let us 
with money, men, and naval stores supply them. Besides, 
our pleasure is, that a hundred ambassadors of the first rank 
from Latium go to bear our instructions, and confirm* the al- 
liance, and in their hands extend the boughs of peace, bearing 
presents of ivory, and sums of gold, a chair of state, and royal 
robe, the ensigns of our crown. Advise for the common 
good, 19 and relieve a distressed state. 

17 This is the proper meaning. See Drakenb. on Sil. viii. 112. B. 

18 Sicania, an ancient name of Sicily, which it received from the Si- 
cani, a people of Spain, who first passed into Italy, and afterwards into 
Sicily, where they established themselves. 

19 So " in commune "is used, as in Tacit. Agr. § 12. Sueton.Ner. §15. 3- 



B. xi. 336—369. JENEID. 361 

Then the same hostile Drances rises, (whom the glory of 
Turnus inflamed with oblique envy 20 and malignant stings ; 
abounding in wealth, and more in tongue, but a cold champion 
in war, yet deemed of no mean authority in consultations ; in 
faction powerful; him his mother's quality inspired Avith the 
pride of noble blood, but by the father's side he was of birth 
obscure, 21 ) and loads Turnus with these invectives, and aggra- 
vates animosity : Gracious sovereign, you ask counsel in an 
affair which to none is obscure, nor requires our debate. All 
must own that they well know what the weal of the nation 
demands; but they hesitate to speak their mind. Let him 
allow that freedom of speech, and moderate his vaunts, for 
whose inauspicious influence and perverse conduct (for my 
part I will speak out, even though he should threaten me with 
hostility and death) we have seen so many illustrious chiefs 
perish, and the whole city sit in mourning ; while he tempts 
the Trojan camp trusting to flight, and defies heaven with his 
arm. To those numerous gifts which you order to be sent and 
delivered to the Trojans, this one, this one more, O best of 
sovereigns, add ; nor let any one's violent remonstrances deter 
thee from giving away your daughter, by a father's right, to 
an illustrious son-in-law, (a worthy match,) and from confirm- 
ing this peace by a perpetual alliance. And if such dread [of 
Turnus] haunts our minds and souls, him let us implore, and 
from him sue for grace ; that to his sovereign he may resign, 
and to his country give up his proper right. Why dost thou 
so often expose thy wretched citizens to open dangers ? O 
thou, the source and origin of these ills to Latium ! no safety 
[is for us] in war : to thee, O Turnus, we all sue for peace, 
at the same time for the sole inviolable pledge of peace. 22 I 
the first, (whom as your malicious foe you image to yourself, 
nor am I concerned to disprove the charge,) lo ! I come thy 
suppliant : have pity on thy own ; lay aside thy fierceness, 
and baffled quit the field. Full many deaths have we with 
loss of victory seen, and brought the extended fields to desola- 
tion. Or, if fame have influence, if in your breast such forti- 
tude you lodge, and if your heart be so much set on a palace 

20 " Qui non ex aperto impugnabat Turnum ; sed eum reipublicae 
simulata defensione lacerabat." Servius. B. 

21 Literally, " he bore himself] uncertain on the father's side." B. 
83 i. e. Lavinia. B. 



362 ^EKEID, b xi. 370—407 

for yDur dowry ; dare it, and bravely expose your breast ad- 
verse to the foe. Forsooth, that Turnus may be blessed with a 
royal consort, we, abject souls, may be strewn on the field, an 
unburied and unwept throng. And now, if you have any 
spirit, if you have aught of your country's Mars, look him in 
the face who gives you the challenge. With these invectives 
the fierce mind of Turnus was inflamed : he groans, and from 
the bottom of his breast forces out these accents : Drances, I 
own, you have always a rich profusion of words at the time 
when wars call for action ; and when the fathers are convened, 
you are there the foremost : but this is not a time to fill the 
court with words which fly in big torrents from thee in safety, 
while the bulwarks of our walls keep off the foe, and the 
trenches float not with blood. Wherefore thunder on in noisy 
eloquence, as thou art wont, and arraign me of cowardice, 
thou [the valiant] Drances, since thy right hand hath raised 
so many heaps of slaughtered Trojans, and every where thou 
deckest the fields with trophies. You may, however, put that 
animated valour of yours to the proof; for not far have we to 
seek our foes ; they all around beset our walls. March we 
against the adversary ? why do you demur ? will your prowess 
always lie in your blustering tongue, and in those feet only 
swift to fly? Am I routed? or will any one, thou most abject 
wretch, justly tax me with being routed, who shall view the 
swollen Tiber rise with Trojan blood, and Evander's whole 
family with his race stretched on the ground, and the Arca- 
dians stripped of their armour ? Not so Bitias and bulky 
Pandarus me proved, nor those thousands whom, in one day, 
I victorious sent down to Tartarus, enclosed within the walls, 
and shut up by the rampart of the foe. No safety, [you say,] 
is in war. Go, madman, vent such language to the Dardanian 
chief, and thy own party. Wherefore cease not to embroil 
all with dreadful alarms, to extol the strength of the twice 
vanquished race, and on the other hand to depress the arms 
of Latinus. Now the Myrmidonian 23 chiefs tremble at the 
Phrygian arms ! now Diomede and Larissaean Achilles ! and 
the river Aufidus 24 flies back from the Adriatic waves; even 
when the wicked dissembler feigns himself under terror of 

23 All this is spoken ironically. B. 

24 Aufi'dus, (Ofanto,) a river of Apulia in Italy, falling into the Adri« 
rtic. The battle of Cannae was fought on the banks of the Aufidus. 



b. xi. 407—441. ^NEID. 363 

my menaces, and by his own fear aggravates the charge against 
me. Cease from being disturbed ; never shalt thou lose such 
a soul as thine by this right hand : let it dwell with thee, and 
rest in that ignoble breast. Now I return to thee, sire, and 
to thy important debates. If in our arms you repose no further 
confidence ; if we are so desolate, and utterly undone by our 
army being once defeated, and our fortune is capable of no 
redress ; let us sue for peace, and let us extend our hands un- 
armed. Yet oh ! did any of our wonted worth remain, that 
man were happy in my judgment beyond all others, in his 
toils, and heroic in soul, who, that he might not see aught like 
this, fell once for all, and dying bit the ground. But if we 
both have resources, and youthful troops still fresh, and Italian 
cities and nations left to our aid ; if the Trojans purchase their 
honour with much blood ; if they too have their funerals, and 
the storm [of war has raged] through all with equal fury : 
why faint we dishonourably in the first entrance [to the 
war] ? why does trembling seize our limbs, before the trumpet 
[sounds] ? Length of days, and the various labour of change- 
ful time, have reduced many things to a better state : fortune, 
that visits alternately [with good and ill], hath baffled many, 
and again placed them on a firm basis. The ^Etolian prince, 
[it seems,] and Arpi, will not support us ; but Messapus will, 
and the fortunate Tolumnius, 25 and those leaders whom so 
many nations have sent : nor shall small glory attend the se- 
lect troops from Latium and the Laurentine fields. With us 
too is Camilla, 26 of the illustrious race of the Yolscians, who 
leads a squadron of horse, and troops gaily glittering with 
brass. But if the Trojans demand me alone to the fight, and 
if this be your pleasure, and I so much obstruct your com- 
mon good ; victory has not hitherto with so much hate aban- 
doned my right hand, as for me to decline any enterprise for 
so glorious a prospect. I will advance against [^Eneas] with 
confidence, though he should even approve himself a great 
Achilles, and sheathe himself in similar armour forged by 
Vulcan's hands. To you, and to Latinus, my [promised] 
father-in-law, I, Turnus, not inferior in valour to any of the 

25 Tolumnius, an augur in the army of Turnus against ^neas, who 
violated the league between the Rutulians and Trojans, and -was after- 
wards slain. 

- s Camilla, the virago female warrior. 



364 JENEID. b. xi. 442—471 

ancient heroes, have this life devoted. Does iEneas challenge 
me alone ? Heaven grant he may. Nor let Drances rather, 
if either this be the angry resolve of the gods, by death make 
the atonement ; or, if an opportunity of glory and valour, let 
him bear away [the prize]. 

They in mutual contention were debating on the perplexed 
state of their affairs, iEneas was advancing his camp and army 
[towards the city of Laurentum]. Lo, in great hurry, a mes- 
senger rushes through the court, and fills the city with dread- 
ful alarms; that, from the Tiber's stream, the Trojans, ar- 
ranged in battle-array, and the Tuscan host, were marching 
down over all the plains. Forthwith their minds were seized 
with perturbation, the hearts of the populace are stunned, and 
their rage with keen impulse is roused. In hurry they call 
for arms in hand ; for arms, the storming youth exclaim : the 
fathers in sadness mourn and repine in low accents. 27 Here, 
from every quarter, the loud clamour ascends with various 
discordant notes to the skies : just as when by chance in some 
tall grove flocks of birds alight, or in Padusa's 28 fishy streams, 
hoarse swans raise a clattering din through the loquacious 
floods. Citizens, says Turnus, seizing the opportunity, con- 
vene your council, and seated harangue in praise of peace, 
whilst they rush into our kingdom in arms. This said, he 
instantly put himself in motion, and quick from the lofty hall 
withdrew. You, Volusus, he says, command to arms the 
Yolscian troops, and lead on the Rutulians ; ye, Messapus, and 
Coras 29 with your brother, pour abroad the armed horsemen 
over the extended plains ; let some secure the passes to the 
city, and man the towers ; the rest employ their arms with me 
where I shall command. Instant to the walls they flock from 
all quarters of the town. The sire, Latinus himself, quits the 
council and his great designs [of peace], and distracted with 
the dismal conjuncture, adjourns ; himself he much accuses, 
that he had not directly received the Trojan hero, and to the 
city admitted him as his son-in-law. Others dig trenches 
before the gates, or heave up to them rocks and palisades ; 
the hoarse trumpet sounds the bloody signal for the war: 

27 This is the proper force of " rmissant." B. 

28 Padusa, the most southern mouth of the Po, from which there was 
5 cut to the town of Ravenna. 

29 Coras, a brother of Catillus and Tiburtus, who fought against .££nea CT 



b. xi. 475—516. JENEID. 365 

then in various circling bands, matrons and boys crowned the 
ramparts : the extremity of distress calls every one. Mean- 
while the queen, with a great retinue of matrons, is borne 
aloft to the temple and high towers of Pallas, carrying offer- 
ings ; and by her side attends the virgin Lavinia, the cause of 
so great woe, fixing on the ground her beauteous eyes. The 
matrons follow, and with incense fume the temple, and from 
the lofty threshold pour forth their doleful prayers : Patroness 
of war, powerful in arms, Tritonian virgin, crush with thine 
arm the Phrygian pirate's lance, and stretch himself prostrate 
on the ground, and overthrow him under our lofty gates. 

Turnus himself, with emulous ardour raging, is armed for 
battle ; and now, clad in his Rutulian corslet, was rough with 
brazen scales, and had sheathed his legs in gold, his temples 
yet naked ; to his side he had buckled on his sword, and from 
the high fort speeding his way shone all in gold ; with spirit 
he exults, and already in hope anticipates the foe : as when 
the courser, having burst his bonds, flies from the stall, at 
length at liberty, and possessed of the open plain ; either to 
the pastures and herds of mares he bends his way, or accus- 
tomed to be laved in the well-known flood, springs forth, and 
rearing up his crest on high, neighs with wanton pride ; and 
his mane plays on his neck and shoulders. Whom full in the 
face, Camilla, attended by her Yolscian squadron, meets, and 
under the very gates the queen leaps down from her horse ; 
after whose example the whole troop, quitting their steeds, slid 
down to earth. Then thus she speaks: Turnus, if justly in 
themselves the brave may aught confide, I dare, and promise 
to stand the shock of the Trojan host, and singly to make head 
against the Tuscan horse. Suffer me with this arm to tempt 
the first dangers of the war : near the walls stay you behind 
on foot, and guard the city. To this Turnus, with eyes fixed 
on the formidable maiden, [replies] : O heroine, glory of Italy, 
what thanks can I prepare to express, or what return can I 
make to thee ? But now since that soul of thine is superior 
to all things, share with me the toil. -ZEneas, as fame and the 
scouts we sent bring sure advice, with wicked purpose hath 
sent on light-armed horse to scour the plains : himself along 
the desert height of the mountains, hastening down its brow, 
marches against the city. A stratagem of war I devise, in a 
winding path of the wood to beset the twofold defile with an 



366 ^ENEID. 



b. xi. 517—552. 



armed band. Do you in close fight engage the Tuscan horse. 
The brave Messapus will be with you. and the Latin troops^ 
and the Tiburtine band : and do thou also assume the gene- 
ral's charge. He said, and in like terms animates Messapus 
and the confederate chiefs to the fight, and marches on against 
the foe. In a mazy winding tract a valley lies, commodious 
for ambush and the wiles of war ; which a gloomy flank of 
wood encloses with thick boughs : whither leads a scanty 
path, narrow defiles and malignant passes guide. Over this, 
in the mountain's heights and lofty summit, lie a concealed 
plain and safe retreats ; whether from right or left you wish 
to attack an enemy, or from the ridge to harass him, and tum- 
ble on him ponderous rocks. Hither young Turnus repairs 
along the path's well-known track ; he with expedition seized 
.the post, and in the dangerous thickets insidiously lay. 
f Meanwhile Diana in the superior mansions addressed swift 
Opis, 30 one of her virgin train and sacred retinue, and with sad 
accent pronounced these words : O nymph, Camilla to cruel 
war sets out, and is with our arms in vain arrayed, she who 
is dear to me above her fellows : nor is this a new passion 
that rises in Diana, and with a sudden fondness moves my 
soul. When Metabus, 31 expelled from his kingdom for in- 
vidious measures, and insolent abuse of power, quitted his 
ancient city Privernum, flying amidst the contests of war, he 
carried off the infant his companion in exile, and from her 
mother's name Casmilla, with small variation, called her Ca- 
milla. He, in his bosom bearing her before him, to the re- 
mote mountains and solitary groves took his way ; cruel darts 
pursued him on all sides, and the Yolscians hovered about 
with troops around him spread. Lo, in the midst of his 
flight, Amasenus overflowing foamed over his highest banks ; 
such a torrent of rain had burst from the clouds: he, pre- 
paring to swim, is retarded by his tenderness for the child, 
and fears for his darling charge. As he was pondering every 
expedient within himself, suddenly this resolution with re- 
luctance settled [in his breast]. An enormous javelin, which 
in his strong hand the warrior chanced to wield, solid with 

30 Opis, a nymph among Diana's attendants, who avenged the death ci 
Camilla by shooting Arus, by whose hand the qneen had fallen. 

31 Metabus, king of Privernum, a city of the Volsci in Latium, and 
f ather of Camilla. 



b. xi. 553—593. jENEID. 367 

knots and well- seasoned oak; to this he fastens the babe 
wrapped up in bark and sylvan cork, and with dexterity binds 
her about the middle of the dart ; which poising in his vast 
hand, he thus addresses himself to heaven: To thee, virgin 
daughter of Latona, auspicious inmate of the woods, this child, 
thy handmaid, I in a father's right devote: wielding thy 
weapons first she flies through the air, thy suppliant, from the 
foe : O goddess, I implore thee, receive thy own, who now is 
committed to the uncertain winds. He said, and with inbent 
arm flung the whirled lance; the waves resound; over the 
rapid stream ill-fated Camilla on the whizzing javelin flies. 
But Metabus, a numerous troop now pursuing him more 
closely, flings himself into the flood, and, master of his wish, 
plucks from the grassy turf the spear, with the virgin, Diana's 
gift. Him no cities, nouses, or walls received ; nor, by reason 
of his savage nature, would he have condescended [so to live] : 
but in the lonely mountains he led a shepherd's life. There 
among the brakes and horrid lairs, he nurtured his child from 
the dugs of a brood-mare, and with animal milk, milking the 
teats into her tender lips. And soon as the infant with the 
first prints of her feet had marked the ground, he loaded her 
hands with the pointed javelin, and from the shoulders of the 
little girl hung a bow and arrows. Instead of ornaments of 
gold for the hair, instead of being arrayed in a long trailing 
robe, a tiger's hide hangs over her back down from her head. 
Even then with tender hand she flung childish darts, and 
whirled round her head a smooth-thonged sling, and struck 
down a Strymonian crane or white swan. Many matrons 
through the Tuscan towns in vain wished her for their 
daughter-in-law. She with Diana alone content, a spotless 
maid, cherishes the perpetual love of darts and virginity. 
Would she had never been in love with war like this, nor at- 
tempted to assault the Trojans ! My favourite, and one of my 
retinue, she might now have been. But come, O nymph, 
since it is so determined by cruel fates, glide down from the 
sky, and visit the Latin coast, where with inauspicious omens 
the woeful fight is ushered in. Take these [weapons], and 
from thy quiver draw forth a vengeful arrow : by this, who- 
ever with a wound shall violate her sacred body, whether 
Trojan or Italian, let him to me without distinction pay the 
forfeit with his blood. Then in a hollow cloud will I into a 



363 JENEID. b. xi. 594-630 

tomb convey the corpse and uncaptured arms of my lamented 
maid, and restore her to her native land. She said: but Opis, 
shooting down through the light airy regions of the sky, rat- 
tled along, her body wrapped around in a black whirlwind. 

But the Trojan host meanwhile approach the walls, and the 
Tuscan chiefs and the whole army of horsemen in order were 
ranged in troops. The prancing courser neighs aloud over 
all the plain, and battles with the tightened reins, this way and 
that way w r heeling about : then far and wide an iron field of 
spears bristles to the view, and the plains shoot a fiery glare 
with arms raised aloft. Again on the other side opposed to 
these appear in the field Messapus, and the swift Latins, and 
Coras wdth his brother, and virgin Camilla's winof : and with 
right hands drawn back stretch forth their spears far before 
them, and brandish their darts : the advance of the heroes and 
neighing of the steeds appear more and more fierce. And 
now each army, advancing w r ithin a javelin's throw, make a 
halt : with a sudden shout they spring forth, and cheer on 
their sprightly steeds : at once from all quarters they pour 
thick showers of darts, like snow, and with their shade the 
face of heaven is screened. Forthwith Tyrrhenus and fierce 
Aconteus, exerting their whole force, rush on each other 
with lance to lance opposed, and first with mighty noise give 
the first shock, and with violent contact dash their horses' 
breasts against each other. Aconteus, tossed [from his steed] 
after the manner of a thunderbolt, or weight shot from an 
engine, is flung headlong to a distance, and disperses his 
life in air. Instantly the lines are thrown into disorder ; and 
the Latins put to flight, cast their shields behind, and turn the 
horses to the city. The Trojans pursue: Asylas chief leads 
on the troops. And now r they approached the gates : when 
the Latins again raise a shout, and wheel about the pliant 
necks [of their steeds] ; the others fly, and, giving their horses 
full reins, retreat: as when the sea rolling with alternate 
tides now rushes on the land, and foaming throws over the 
rocks its waves, and with its skirts overflows the extremity of 
the strand : now back with rapid motion, and sucking in 
again the stones rolled backwards with the tide, it retreats, 
and with the ebbing current leaves the shore. Twice the 
Tuscans drove the flying Rutulians to their walls : twice the 
repulsed [Rutulians] face about on their foes, who, w T ith their 



h. xi. 630—665. JENEID. 3G9 

targets defend their backs. But, after joining battle the tnird 
time, they mingled their whole armies in close fight, and man 
singles out his man ; then are dying groans ; and arms, and 
bodies, and expiring steeds, mingled with slaughtered heaps 
of men, roll in deep blood : a furious combat ensues. Orsilo- 
chus against the horse of Remulus, when he dreaded to en- 
counter the rider himself, hurled a lance, and left the steel 
beneath his ear : with which blow the courser rages bounding 
high, and, impatient of the wound, tosses his legs aloft, rear- 
ing up his breast. His lord dismounted, falls to the ground. 
Catillus overthrows Iolas, and Herminius, formidable for 
courage, for size, and arms ; whose yellow locks [waved] on 
his bare head, and whose shoulders were also uncovered. 
Wounds dismay him not : so mighty he stands to arms op- 
posed. The spear, driven through his broad shoulders, trem- 
bles, and, transfixing the warrior, doubles him down with 
pain. Black gore is poured forth all around : vying with each 
other, they deal destruction with the sword, and by wounds 
seek glorious death. But amidst heaps of slain the Amazon 
Camilla, armed with a quiver, proudly prances over the field, 
with one breast bared for the fight ; and now with her hand 
in showers tough javelins she throws, now with unwearied 
arm she snatches her sturdy halberd. From her shoulder rat- 
tles her golden bow, and the arms of Diana. Even if at any 
time repulsed she gave ground, still turned [against the foe] 
she aimed the winged shafts from her bow. Around her were 
her select retinue, the virgin Larina, Tulla, and Tarpeia brand- 
ishing her brazen axe, Italian nymphs ; whom sacred Camilla 
herself had chosen for her glory, and as trusty assistants in 
war and peace : like Thracian Amazons, when they beat the 
banks of Thermodon, 32 and war with particoloured arms, 
either round Hippolyte, 33 or about Penthesilea, when that 
martial lady in her chariot returns ; and with loud yelling up- 
roar the female troops with half-moon 34 shields exult. Whom 
first, whom last, didst thou, fierce virgin, with thy shafts 

32 Thermodon, (Thermeh,) a river of Pontus, in Asia Minor, in the 
country of the Amazons, falling into the Euxine Sea near Themiscyra. 

33 Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons, given in marriage to Theseus, by 
Hercules, who had conquered her. 

34 So called from their form. Cf. Quintus Calab. i. 146, avy Wer' ac- 
rrida oiav dXiyKiov avrvyt firjvijg. B. 

2 B 



370 JENEID. b. xi. 666— 70G 

overthrow ? or how many bodies didst thou stretch gasping 
on the ground ? First Eumenius, the son of Clytius, whose 
exposed breast, as he stood right against her, she transfixes 
with the long spear of fir. He, vomiting up torrents of blood, 
falls and bites the bloody ground, and dying writhes on his 
own wound. Then Liris and Pagasus besides ; of whom the 
one tumbling backward from his horse wounded under him 
while he gathers up the reins, the other, as he comes up, and 
reaches his unavailing hand to his falling friend, both fall 
headlong and at once. To these she joins Amastrus, the son 
of Hippotas ; and at distance keenly plying with darts pur- 
sues Tereas, Harpalycus, Demophoon, and Chromis ; and 
as many shafts as shot from her hand the virgin hurled, so 
many Trojan heroes fell. Afar the hunter Ornytus in strange 
arms rides on his lapygian 35 steed; his broad shoulders a 
hide torn from a fierce bullock overspreads ; his head a wolfs 
vast yawning mouth and jaws with white teeth cover, and a 
rustic lance 36 arms his hand. In the midst of the troops he 
moves about, and overtops the rest by a full head. Him in- 
tercepted (nor hard was the task, now that she had put his 
troop to flight) she transfixes, and over him these words with 
hostile heart pronounces : Tuscan, didst thou fancy that thou 
wast hunting beasts of chase in the woods ? The day is come, 
that by a female arm confutes your vaunts : yet to the manes 
of thy fathers this no trifling honour shalt thou bear, that 
thou didst fall by the weapon of Camilla. In order next Or- 
silochus and Butes, the two most bulky bodies of the Trojans, 
[she assaults] : but Butes right against her with the pointed 
lance she transfixes, between the corslet and the helmet, where, 
as he sits r upon the horse], the shining neck appears, and 
where down from his left arm the buckler hangs : Orsilochus 
she mocks with [dissembled] flight, and wheeling round in a 
spacious orb, turns short upon him in a narrower circle, and 
pursues the pursuer. Then rising high, with redoubled 
strokes she drives her sturdy axe through his arms, and 
through his bones, while he prays and earnestly begs his life : 
with his warm brains the wound besmears his face. The 
warrior son of Aunus, the Apennine mountaineer, casually 

35 i. e. " Appulo." Servius. Compare Gellius ii. 22. B. 
u " Spams," a rustic missile, called, according to Varro, (cf. Serviur.) 
ft m\ its similarity to a fish of that name. B. 



it. xi. 701— 733. ^ENEID. 371 

encountered her, and startled with the sudden sight stopped 
short ; not the last of the Ligurians, while the Fates suffered 
him to practise fraud. Soon as he perceives that now by no 
flight he can evade the combat, nor avert the queen who 
presses him close, with policy and craft attempting to execute 
his wishes, he thus begins : What mighty courage, female, if 
on a warlike steed you rely ? throw away the means of flight, 
and trust thyself with me hand to hand on equal ground, and 
prepare for the combat on foot: soon shalt thou know to 
which of us his vain-glorious boasting will bring harm. 37 He 
said ; but she, breathing fury, and stung with fierce resent- 
ment, delivers her steed to an attendant, and confronts him in 
equal arms with the naked sword on foot, and with her device- 
less shield undaunted. But the youth, presuming that he had 
overcome by artifice, instantly flies off, and, turning about his 
horse's head, is borne away with precipitation, and tires his 
fleet courser with the iron spur. Fond Ligurian, [says she,] 
flushed with unavailing pride of soul, in vain hast thou per- 
fidious tried thy country's slippery arts ; nor shall all thy arti- 
fice bring thee off safe to cheating Aunus. Thus the virgin 
said, and with nimble foot, all on fire, outruns his courser's 
speed, and, grasping the reins, engages him face to face, and 
takes vengeance on his hostile blood ; with the same ease as 
from a lofty rock the falcon, sacred bird [of Mars], with 
winged speed overtakes a dove aloft among the clouds, and 
seizing gripes her fast, and scoops out the bowels with his 
hooked talons : then from the sky her blood and torn plumes 
drop down. 

But not with inattentive eyes the Sire of gods and men 
these scenes surveying, on high Olympus exalted sits. The 
Sire rouses Tuscan Tarchon to bloody battles, and with no 
mild incentives inflames his rage. Therefore, amidst the 
scenes of slaughter and flying squadrons, Tarchon is hurried 
on by his steed, and with various remonstrances animates the 
wings, calling each man 38 by his name ; and rallies the broke u 
troops to battle. Oh never to be moved with just indigna- 
tion ! Oh still dastardly faint-hearted Tuscans, what fear, 

37 "Fraudem" seems to have been always regarded as the correct 
reading. See Servius. B. 

"* So Furius apnd Macrob. Sat. vi. 1, "nomine quemque ciet." Silius 
t '154, " Cunctosque ciebat nomine. "■ B. 

i b 2 



372 JENEID. b. xi. 734-7G7 

what cowardice so base has seized your souls ? Does a woman 
drive you straggling, and put these squadrons to flight? 
What avails the sword ? or why wield we in our hands these 
useless weapons ? But not so slothful are ye in the service of 
Venus and her nocturnal wars, 39 or when the bent pipe of 
Bacchus hath summoned the choirs to wait for the banquets 
and bowls at the sumptuous board. This is your delight, 
this your ambition, while the auspicious augur declares the 
sacred rites, and the fat victim invites you to the deep groves. 
This said, he spurs on his steed into the midst, he too bent on 
death, and in furious perturbation advances directly against 
Venulus ; and with his right hand grasps the foe torn off his 
steed, and precipitant with huge violence bears him off before 
him. A shout is raised to heaven ; and all the Latins turned 
their eyes. Fiery Tarchon flies over the plain, bearing both 
the warrior and his arms : then from the top of his lance he 
breaks off the steel, and explores the open chinks where he 
may inflict the mortal wound. He, on the other hand, strug- 
gling against him, wards off his hand from his throat, and 
force by force evades. And as when the tawny eagle soaring 
high bears off a serpent whom she hath seized, hath fixed in 
him her feet, and with her talons griped him fast ; but the 
wounded serpent writhes his curving volumes, and with 
erected scales is stiff, and hisses with his mouth, rising high 
against [his foe] : she not the less with hooked beak squeezes 
him struggling, at the same time flaps the air with her wings ; 
just so, from the army of the Tiburtines Tarchon in tri- 
umph bears off his prey. The Tuscans, following the ex- 
ample and fortune of their leader, rush on. Then Aruns 40 
to death devoted, with his javelin and much artifice, first 
courses round the swift Camilla, and watches what most 
favourable opportunity may occur. Wherever amidst the 
troops the furious maid drove on, there Aruns follows, and 
silently surveys her steps. Wherever she victorious returns, 
and from the foe withdraws her steps, that way the youth 
secretly winds about the reins with speed. Now these, now 
those approaches, and the whole circuit he traverses, and with 
mischievous purpose shakes his unerring lance. By chance 

39 Virgil expresses the Greek vvKro/Liax^v (cf. Aristaenet. i. 10). B. 

40 Aruns, a Trojan, who slew Camilla, and was killed by a dart cf 
Diana. 



B. xi 768—800. ^ENEID. 373 

Chloreus, 41 sacred to Cybele, and formerly her priest, at dis- 
tance shone conspicuous in Phrygian arms, and spurred on his 
foaming courser ; which a hide compact with gilt scaly plates 
of brass in form of plumes, covered. He himself, gaudy in 
barbaric purple of darkened hue, shot Cretan arrows from his 
Lycian bow. Of gold the bow hung rattling from his shoulders, 
and of gold was the helmet of the priest : then in a knot with 
a clasp of yellow gold he had collected his saffron chlamys, 
and its rustling plaits of lawn, having his Phrygian tunic 
embroidered with needle-work. Him the virgin, whether 
that she might fix Trojan arms in the front of the temple, or 
show herself at the chase in captive gold, of all the warring 
chiefs alone blindly pursued ; and through the whole host, 
from a woman's longing for the prey and spoils, with heedless 
ardour roamed : when at length Aruns, snatching the occasion, 
from his covert throws a dart, and thus to the powers above 
addresses his prayer : Apollo, greatest of gods, guardian of 
holy Soracte, whom we chiefly adore ; for whom the fire of 
pine 42 with heaps [of fuel] is fed ; and in whose honour, 
through the midst of the flames, 43 we thy votaries, relying on 
our piety, walk over a length of burning coals ; grant, almighty 
Sire, that by our arms this infamy may be blotted out. Not 
pillage or trophy, or any spoils of a vanquished maid, I seek : 
to me my other exploits will bear renown. If, smitten by a 
wound from me, this rueful pest shall fall, I to my native city 
shall [willingly] return inglorious. Phoebus heard, and with 
himself ordained that part of the vow should be fulfilled ; part 
in fleet air he dispersed. By sudden death to overthrow 
Camilla off her guard, he granted to his suppliant ; that his 
illustrious country should see him safely return he denied, and 
that petition the tempests turned adrift among the winds. 
Therefore, soon as sent from his hand the spear gave a whiz- 
zing sound through the air, the armies turned their attention, 

41 Chloreus, a priest of Cybele, who came with iEneas into Italy, and 
was killed by Turnus. 

42 But this may also mean " the pitchy flame," as in Soph. Antig. 124, 
jrsvicaevO' "RcpaKjrov. So Tryphiodorus, 214, TrevKrjavrog dvaaxofievoi 
Trvpbg bpjxi]v. Compare Heins. on Silius v. 179. B. 

43 This is illustrated from a historical passage in Pliny, lib. vii. cap. 
2. Haud procul urbe Roma, in Faliscorum agro, familiae sunt paucae, 
quae vocantur Hirpiae : quae sacriricio annuo, quod fit ad montem Soractem 
Apollini, super ambustam ligni struem ambulantes non aduruntur. 



•'■> ' 4 x jKNEID. b. xi. 801—837. 

and all the Volscians on the queen their eyes directed. Neither 
air nor whizzing sound did she heed, or the weapon flying 
from the sky, till plunged beneath her naked breast the spear 
stuck fast, and driven home drank deep her virgin blood. 
Her attendants in trembling haste pour in together, and lift 
up their falling queen. Above all, Aruns, stunned with joy 
and mingled fear, flies ; and now no longer dares trust to his 
spear, or make head against the weapons of the virgin. And 
as some fierce 44 w r olf 5 after he has slain a shepherd or lusty 
bullock, conscious of his daring deed, forthwith by some un- 
beaten path hath to the lofty mountains made his retreat, 
before the hostile darts pursue him ; and cowering hides his 
cowardly tail under him, and hastens to the woods: just so 
Aruns in hurrying perturbation from sight withdrew, and 
pleased with his flight mixed among the armed troops. She 
dying wrenches out the weapon with her hand ; but between 
the bones in her side the steel point stands fixed with a deep 
wound. Down she sinks lifeless ; down sink her cold eyes in 
death ; her once blooming hue hath forsaken her face. Then 
thus, breathing her last, she addresses Acca, one of her com- 
peers, who, beyond the rest, was singularly trusty to Camilla, 
with whom she used to divide her cares ; and thus these words 
she speaks : So far, O sister Acca, have I held out ; now a 
cruel wound unffces me, and all objects around put on a 
face of darkness. Fly quick, and bear these, my last com- 
mands, to Turnus : let him advance to the combat, and repel 
the Trojans from the city. And now farewell. At the same 
time with these words she dropped the reins, sinking to the 
ground involuntarily : then of vital heat bereft, she disengages 
herself from the whole body by degrees ; and reclined her 
drooping neck, and head subdued by death, leaving her arms; 
and with a groan her life indignant fled to the shades. Then 
indeed a prodigious outcry arising strikes the golden stars. 
The combat grows more bloody, now that Camilla is over- 
thrown. At once in thick array rush on the whole strength 
of the Trojans, the Tuscan chiefs, and the wings of Arcadian 
Evander. 

But Opis, appointed by Diana to watch [the fair J, a long 
while had sat aloft on the high mountains, and fearless viewed 

44 See, however, Anthon on Mn. x. 707. B. 



B. xi. 838— 874. ^NEID. OiO 

the combat. And soon as from far she espied Camilla by a 
lamentable death overthrown amidst the bustle of the infu- 
riated youths, she inly groaned, and from the bottom of her 
breast uttered these words : Ah virgin, too, too cruel punish- 
ment hast thou sustained, for offering to defy the Trojans in 
war ! nor hath it aught availed thee that lonely in the woods 
thou wast a votary to Diana, and on thy shoulder didst bear 
our quivers : yet not without honour has thy queen forsaken 
thee now in death's extremity, nor shall this thy death be un- 
recorded amongst the nations, nor shalt thou bear the infamy 
of being unrevenged : for whoever with a wound hath violated 
thy body, shall by just death his crime atone. Under the 
lofty mountain stood the stately tomb 45 of Dercennus, the 
ancient king of Laurentum, formed of a mount of earth, and 
shaded with gloomy holm. Here first the goddess, pre-emi- 
nent in beauty, with a rapid effort [of her wings] alights, and 
Aruns from the high eminence surveys. Soon as she saw him 
shining in armour, and vainly swelling, she said, Why dost 
thou move off that way ? hither direct thy course, hither come 
to meet thy doom, that from Camilla thou may est receive thy 
due reward. Shalt thou, too, have the honour to die by Di- 
ana's shafts? She said, and from her gilded quiver the Thra- 
cian nymph drew forth a winged arrow, and wrathful bent 
her bow, and stretched it to its length, till the crooked points 
together met, and now with both hands alike she touched, 
with the left the steel point, and with the right and bow-string 
her breast. Forthwith Aruns heard at once the hissing of 
the shaft and sounding air, and in his body the steel stuck 
fast. Him, expiring and groaning his last, his regardless 
friends abandon in the dusty plain unknown: Opis to the 
ethereal sky on wings is borne away. 

First fly the warriors of Camilla's left-armed wing, now 
that their queen is lost ; the Rutulians in confusion fly ; va- 
liant Atinas flies ; the discomfited leaders, and the desolate 
companies, both seek safe retreats, and turning their backs, on 
coursers bend their way towards the town. Nor is any one 
able with arms to sustain, or stand against the Trojans press- 
ing on, and dispensing death ; but on their languid shoulders 
they bear off their bows unbent, and with swift career the 

45 " Bustum " is, properly, the place where a corpse has been burnt. B. 



376 J3NEID. b. xi. 875—914. 

courser's hoof beats the mouldering plain. Dust, in thick 
clouds of black vapour, is rolled towards the walls ; and from 
the towers the matrons beating their breast raise the female 
shriek to the stars of heaven. On those who first with speed 
burst within the expanded gates a hostile throng in a mingled 
body presses ; nor escape they deplorable death, but in the 
very entrance, under their native walls, and amidst the shelter 
of the houses, transfixed together they breathe out their souls. 
Some shut the gates, nor dare to open a passage to their 
friends, or within the walls to receive them imploring : and a 
most lamentable slaughter ensues of such as guarded with 
their arms the passes, and such as rushed on 4hose arms. The 
excluded, before the eyes and faces of their grieving parents, 
partly tumble headlong into the deep trenches, ruin closely 
pursuing. Some giving loose reins, blindfold and with rapid 
speed batter against the gates, and the firmly barricaded posts. 
Even the trembling matrons, soon as from the walls they 
espied the corpse of Camilla, with the greatest eagerness (since 
affection to their country prompts them) cast darts with their 
hands, and, rushing precipitant with hardened oaks, stakes, 
and poles burnt at the point, imitate iron weapons, and are 
ambitious to die the first before the walls. Meanwhile this 
horrid intelligence fills [the ears of] Turnus [as he lies am- 
bushed] in the woods, and to the youth Acca reports the 
dreadful disorder ; that the troops of the Yolscians were cut 
in pieces, Camilla had fallen, the vengeful foes were making a 
furious onset, and by a successful battle had made themselves 
masters of all ; that the consternation was now propagated to 
the city. He furious (for so the inflexible decrees of Jove 
require) quits the hills he had beset, forsakes the rugged woods. 
Scarcely had he gone out of sight, and possessed the plain, 
when father .ZEneas, entering the open lawns, overpasses the 
mountain's ridge, and safe through the gloomy wood takes his 
way. Thus both impetuous, and with their whole army, to- 
wards the city advance ; nor are they many paces distant from 
each other. And at once ^Eneas at a distance espied the plain 
smoking with dust, and saw the Laurentine bands ; and Tur- 
nus descried ^Eneas fierce in arms, and heard the tread of feet, v 
and the snorting of the steeds. Forthwith they would engage 
in fight, and essay the combat, did not rosy Phoebus now dip 
his tired steeds in the western ocean, and, day declining, 



b. xi 915. xn. 1—24. JENEID. 377 

bring back the night. In their camps before the town they 
rest, and entrench the walls. 



BOOK XII. 

In the Twelfth Book, Juno prevents the single combat agreed upon by Tur- 
nus and iEneas. The Trojans are defeated in the absence of their king, 
who had retired wounded, but is miraculously cured by Venus. On his 
return, he again challenges Turnus to the combat, with whose death the 
poem concludes. 

As soon as Turnus saw that the Latins, broken with unsuc- 
cessful war, had lost heart ; that now his promise was claimed, 
himself marked out by the eyes [of all] ; he burns with volun- 
tary determination not to yield, 1 and raises his martial spirit. 
As in the fields of Carthage, a lion, whose breast is pierced 
by the hunters with a smart wound, then at length prepares 
for battle, and delights in shaking the brawny muscles of his 
shaggy neck, and undaunted breaks the infixed weapon of the 
hunter and roars with bloody jaws: just so in Turnus' in- 
flamed breast violence rises, 2 then thus he addresses the king, 
and thus in perturbation begins : In Turnus is no delay ; the 
dastardly Trojans have no handle to retract their challenge, 
or to decline what they have agreed to. I enter the lists : 
order thou, O sire, the sacred rites, and ratify the truce. 
Either I with this right hand shall despatch to Tartarus the 
Trojan, the renegado of Asia, (let the Latins sit still and look 
on,) and alone shall with the sword repel the common charge ; 
or let him rule us vanquished, let Lavinia be resigned his 
spouse. To him with mind composed Latinus replied: 
youth surpassing in soul, the more you excel in fierce valour, 
the more solicitously it concerns me to consult [your safety], 
and with fearful caution to weigh the danger. You are heir 
to the kingdom of your father Daunus, many cities have been 
won by your valour, wealth also, and a high spirit, belong to 
Latinus. There are other virgins unwedded in Latium and 

1 I have been compelled to use a circumlocution in translating " ultro 
implacabilis ardet." Servius well observes : " bene ducis dignitatem 
servavit, ut non ideo faceret, quia quidam reposcebant ; sed sua sponto 
accenderetur in proelium." B. 

2 "Gliscit" rather means "increases, grows vehement." So Lucret. 
i. 475, " Ignis Alexandri Phrygio sub pectore gliscens." iv. 1062, " In- 
ouc dies gliscit furor." B. 



378 ^NEID. b.xii. 25—55. 

the territories of Laurentum, not ignoble in their birth. 
Give me leave to lay before you without guile these truths, not 
pleasant to be spoken ; at the same time, imbibe them with deep 
attention. It was decreed that I should wed my daughter to 
none of her former suitors ; and this both gods and men unani- 
mous pronounced. Overpowered by my affection for thee, over- 
powered by the ties of kindred blood, and by the tears of my 
afflicted consort, I broke through all restraints ; wrested my 
daughter from the son-in-law to whom she was promised; 
took up impious 3 arms [against him.] From that time, Turnus, 
you see what calamities, what wars pursue me ; what disasters 
you in chief endure. In two great battles routed, with diffi- 
culty we defend our hopes of Italy in this city : the streams 
of Tiber still run warm with our blood, and the spacious 
fields are white with the bones [of our slain]. Whither am I 
so often driven back? what infatuation changes my mind? 
If, upon Turnus' death, I am resolved to invite [the Trojans 
to be] my allies, why not rather put an end to all dissensions 
while he lives ? What will my kinsmen the Rutulians, what 
will the rest of Italy say, if to death (Heaven disappoint my 
fears !) I betray you, who court my daughter and alliance by 
marriage ? Consider the various chances of war : pity your 
aged sire, whom now disconsolate his native Ardea separates 
far from you. By these remonstrances the rage of Turnus is 
by no means checked : he swells up the more, and by medicine 
grows more distempered. As soon as he was able to speak, 
he thus began in words : Whatever care for me you entertain, 
most excellent prince, I beseech you, for my sake, lay aside, 
and suffer me to purchase death in exchange for glory. We 
too, O sire, can fling 4 the dart and spear with no feeble arm, 
and blood is wont to flow from the wounds which we inflict. 
Nought shall his goddess-mother him avail, 5 who in a female 
cloud screens the fugitive, and conceals herself in delusive 
shades. But the queen, terribly alarmed with the new state 
of the fight, wept, and ready to die [with grief], grasped her 

3 Not only because ^Eneas was destined by the gods to be his son-in- 
law, but because the war was between persons who had formed a truce. B. 

4 Literally, scatter. So Silius vii. 635, " spargentem in vulnera saevus 
Fraude fugs calamos." ix. 390, " spargere tela raanu." B. 

5 Such is the force of " longe," as illustrated by Gronov. on Sen. Hip- 
pol. 974; Drakenb. on Sil. xvii. 80. B. 



b xii. 56—90. -32XEID. 379 

raging son-in-law : Turnus, by these tears, by whatever regard 
for Amata touches your soul : thou art now the only hope, 
the only solace of my wretched old age ; on thee depends the 
glory and power of Latinus ; on thee our whole family now in 
its decline relies ; this one request I make, forbear to engage 
with the Trojans. /Whatever fortune awaits thee in that com- 
bat, Turnus, awaits me also ; with you will I quit this hated 
light, nor captive will I see iEneas my son-in-law. Lavinia, 
bathing her glowing cheeks in tears, listens to the words of 
her mother; [Lavinia,] in whom profound modesty kindled 
up a burning flush, 6 and diffused itself over her blushing 
visage. As if one had stained the Indian ivory with ruddy 
purple i or as white lilies mingled with copious roses blush ; 
such colours the virgin in her visage showed. Love raises 
a tumult in his soul, and fixes his looks upon the maid. 
He burns for arms the more, and briefly thus addresses 
Amata : O mother, do not, I beseech thee, do not with 
tears, do not with so inauspicious an omen, send me from 
you, now that I am on my way to the combat of rigid wars ; 
for Turnus is not at liberty to retard his death ! Idmon, 
my herald, report from me this no pleasing message to the 
Phrygian tyrant : when first the ensuing morn, borne in her 
crimson car, shall blush in the sky, let him not lead his 
Trojans against the Rutulians ; let the arms of Trojans and 
Rutulians rest ; by our blood be the war decided ; in that field 
let Lavinia be won as a bride. When he had pronounced 
these words, and with great speed retired into the palace, he 
calls for his steeds, and exults to see them neighing in his 
presence ; which steeds Orithyia 7 gave (a royal present) to 
Pilumnus, such as in whiteness might surpass the snow, in 
speed the winds. The active grooms stand around, and with 
their hollow hands cheer their stroked chests, and comb their 
waving manes. Then he himself wraps about his shoulders 
his corslet, rough with gold and pale orichalchum: at the 
same time fits for use his sword and buckler, and the horns of 
his flaming crest ; the sword which the god of fire himself had 
forged for his father Daunus, and plunged, when glowing, in 

6 More literally, " unto whom a deep blush kindled up the hot current 
within, and overspread her burning visage." Anthon. 

7 Orithyia, a daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens, and wife of 
Boreas, king of Thrace, 



SB 3 .ENEID. r. xn. 91—124 

the Stygian wave. Next with force lie grasps his strong 
spear, which in the middle of the palace stood resting on a 
mighty column, Auruncian Actor's spoil, and brandishes it 
quivering, exclaiming : Now, O spear, that never baulked my 
call, the time is now at hand. Thee, heroic Actor, thee the 
right hand of Turnus now wields : grant that I may stretch 
his body on the ground, and with my strong hand rend the 
corslet torn from the Phrygian eunuch, and soil in the dust 
his locks frizzled with hot irons and dripping with myrrh. 
With such furies is he driven, and from the whole face of the 
inflamed warrior sparks incessant ily : from his fierce eyes the 
fire flashes : as when a bull to usher in the fight raises 
hideous bellowings, and essays his rage for a combat with 
horns, goring against the trunk of a tree ; with blows he beats 
the air, and preludes to the fight by spurning the sand. 
Meanwhile iEneas, fierce in the arms given by his mother, no 
less whets his martial fury, and kindles up his rage, pleased 
that the war was to be decided on the proffered terms. Then 
he solaces his friends and the fears of sorrowing Iiilus, teach- 
ing them the fates ; and orders the messengers to carry back 
his positive answer to king Latinus, and prescribe the terms 
of peace. 

The next day arisen had scarcely sprinkled the tops of the 
mountains with light, when first from the deep gulf the horses 
of the sun lift up their heads, and from their erected nostrils 
breathe forth day. Under the walls of the spacious city both 
the Rutulians and Trojans, having measured the ground, pre- 
pared it for the combat ; and in the centre [raised] hearths 
and altars of turf to their common gods : others attired in 
linen veils, 8 and having their temples bound with vervain, 
bore fountain-water, and fire. The Ausonian legion ad- 
vances, and the armed squadrons pour forth at the crowded 
gates : on the other side the whole Trojan and Tuscan army 
with various arms rush [to the field], no otherwise arranged 
in battle-array, with sword in hand, than if summoned to the 

8 Servius writes that the priests and sacred ministers among the Rom- 
ans, by whom the laws of peace and war were confirmed, were prohibited 
to wear any thing of linen ; and that Virgil designedly clothes the Feciales 
in linen veils on this occasion, to give us to know beforehand that the 
league was to be broken, since it was ushered in with unlawful rites. 
Others for lino read limo, a kind of garment or apron worn by the priests 
in sacrifice, that reached down from the navel to the feet. 



n xii. 125—160. JENEID. 381 

fierce combat of Mars. The leaders, too, in gold and purple 
decked, amidst the thousands scamper [over the plain] ; 
Mnestheus, the offspring of Assaracus, and brave Asylas ; and 
Messapus, a renowned horseman, Neptune's son. And soon 
as, upon the signal given, each man to his station retired, they 
fix down their spears in the ground, and rest their shields. 
Then, with eagerness [to see the combat], matrons in crowds, 
the populace unarmed, and feeble old men, occupy the towers 
and roofs of houses ; others stand near the lofty gates. But 
from the summit of the hill, which is now called Alban, (then 
the mount had neither name, nor honour, nor glory,) Juno, 
stretching her view, surveyed the field and both armies of 
Laurentines and Trojans, and the city of Latinus. Forthwith 
she thus addressed the sister of Turnus, a goddess to the deity 
who over pools and sounding streams presides ; on her this 
sacred honour Jove, the high sovereign of the sky, for her 
ravished virginity conferred: O nymph, the glory of rivers, 
dearest to my soul, thou knowest how thee in chief, to all the 
maids of Latium who mounted 9 the ungrateful bed of mighty 
Jove, I have preferred, and willingly settled thee partner of 
the skies : learn now, Juturna, 10 lest you should accuse me, 
your sad disaster. As far as fortune seemed to suffer, and the 
Fates permitted the state of Latium to prosper, Turnus and 
your city I protected: now I see the youth engaging with 
unequal fates : the day and unfriendly power of the Destinies 
approach. With these eyes I am not able to behold this com- 
bat, or this league. If aught thou darest more ready for a 
brother, proceed : it becomes thee ; perhaps better fortune 
will attend the wretched [Latins]. Scarcely had she spoken, 
when from her eyes Juturna poured forth tears, and thrice 
and four times with her hand smote her comely breast. This 
is no time for tears, Saturnian Juno says ; despatch, and if 
there be any means, rescue your brother from death : or 
kindle now the war anew, and dissolve the concerted league. 
I authorize you in the daring attempt. Having thus ad- 
vised, she left her perplexed, and distracted with a sad 
wound of soul. 

9 Virgil expresses ^Esch. Suppl. 37, £7rij8^i/at Xeicrpcjv, So also Eurip. 
Hel. 376. B. 

10 Juturna, the sister of king Turnus, changed into a fountain of tho 
same name, the waters of which were used in the sacrifices of Vesta. 



382 ^NEID. b. xii. 161—190. 

Meanwhile the kings, [and in particular] n Latinus of ample 
frame, rides in a chariot by four horses drawn, whose reful- 
gent temples twelve golden rays encompass, the emblem of 
his ancestor the sun : 12 Turnus moves in a car drawn by two 
white steeds, brandishing in his hand two javelins tipped with 
broad steel. On the other side, father ^Eneas, the founder oi 
the Roman race, blazing with his starry shield and arms divine, 
and Ascanius by his side, the other hope of mighty Rome, 
advance from the camp : in a pure vestment the priest brought 
up the youngling of a bristly sow, and an unshorn ewe-lamb, lb 
and presented the victims at the blazing altars. They, turning 
their eyes towards the rising sun, sprinkle with their hands 
the salt cakes, and mark with the sword the top of the vic- 
tims' foreheads, and from the sacred goblets pour libations on 
the altars. Then pious JEneas, having unsheathed his sword, 
thus prays : Thou, sun, be witness now to my prayer, and 
this land, ior whose sake I have been able to sustain such 
grievous toils ; and thou, almighty father, and thou, Saturnian 
Juno, now goddess, now more propitious, I pray : and thou, 
glorious father Mars, who by thy sovereign will disposest the 
fate of all battles : the fountains and rivers I invoke, and 
whatever objects of religion are in the heavens above, and the 
deities that dwell in the azure ocean. If the victory should 
chance to fall to Ausonian Turnus, it is agreed that the van- 
quished [Trojans] shall to Evander's city retire : lulus shall 
quit these territories : nor in future shall the ^Eneades, vio- 
lating the peace, make war again to harass these realms with 
the sword. But if victory shall declare Mars on our side, (as 
I rather presume, and rather may the gods confirm by their 
divine will,) never shall I compel the Italians to be subject to 
the Trojans, nor aim I at empire for myself: let both nations 

11 I have followed Anthon's construing. B. 

12 Latinus was the grandson of Picus, who took Circe, the daughter of 
the sun, to be his wife or concubine, and by her had Faunus, the father 
of Latinus, who consequently was the grandchild of the sun. 

13 Ruaeus observes, that the ewe was offered for iEneas, after the man- 
ner of the Greeks, who commonly ratified a league with the sacrifice of 
a sheep or lamb, as we see in Homer, II. iii. 103. The sow again is for 
Latinus, after the Roman or Italian fashion, which Livy intimates to have 
been of very great antiquity, lib. i. 24, where he gives the form of rati- 
fying a league between the Romans and Albans, in the reign of Tullus 
Hostilius : "Audi Jupiter, &c. — Si prior defexit, tu illo die Jupiter popu- 
lum Romanum sic ferito, ut ego hunc porcum hie hodie feriam." 



H. xii. 191—224. ^ENEID. 383 

unsubdued submit on equal terms to an everlasting league. 
I shall ordain the sacred rites and the gods: 14 let my father- 
in-law Latinus enjoy the control of the war, his wonted sove- 
reign rule: to me my Trojans shall raise a city, and to that 
city Lavinia shall give the name. Thus iEneas first [said] : 
then thus Latinus, raising his eyes to heaven, succeeds, and 
to the stars stretches forth his right hand : By those same 
powers, .ZEneas, by the earth, the sea, the stars, I swear, by 
Latona's double offspring, and two-faced Janus, by the majesty 
of the gods infernal, and the sanctuary of inexorable Pluto. 
These oaths let the Sire hear, who by his thunder ratifies our 
leagues. On the altars I lay my hand ; and the fires here 
placed in the midst of them, and the gods I call to witness : 
no day shall ever violate this peace, this treaty, on the part 
of the Italians, whatever way the event shall fall out : nor 
shall any power make me swerve from them with my will, 
even though it should wash away the earth into the waves, 
blending it with the flood, and dissolve heaven into hell. As 
this sceptre (for a sceptre in his hand he chanced to wield) 
shall never sprout forth with light leaves, twigs, or shady 
boughs, since once lopped in the wood from the low stem it 
was severed from its mother-tree, and by the axe laid down 
its locks and branching arms ; once a tree, now the artist's 
hand hath enchased it in beauteous brass, and fashioned it for 
the Latin kings to wield. By such asseverations they mutu- 
ally confirmed the league full in the view of the chiefs : then 
over the flames they stab 15 the victims consecrated in due 
form, and tear out their entrails from them yet alive, and heap 
up the altars with loaded chargers. 

But to the Rutulians the match had long seemed unequal, 
and their breasts were agitated with various mixed emotions ; 
but then the more, as they discern more nearly that the con- 
test is one of unequal strength. Turnus advancing with a 
silent gait, and in suppliant form with downcast eyes vener- 
ating the altars, his wan cheeks, and the paleness over his 
youthful form, aggravate their fears ; which surmises soon as 
his sister Juturna observed to be spread abroad, and that the 
drooping hearts of the populace were wavering ; into the 
midst of the troops, personating the form of Camertus, (who 

14 i. e. the Latins are to receive those of the Trojans. B. 
14 " Jugulare" properly means "to cut the throat." B. 



384 



^ENEII). t. xii. 225—259. 



was of a noble ancient line, and from his father's valour de- 
rived an illustrious name, himself too most valiant in arms,) 
into the midst of the troops she throws herself, not unskilled 
in expedients, sows various rumours [among the ranks], and 
thus harangues them : Are you not ashamed, O Eutulians ! to 
expose one life for all who are such? 16 are we not equal in 
numbers and in strength ? Lo Trojans and Arcadians both, 
and the fatal band, Etruria, inveterate to Turn us, all are here : 
yet should but every second man of us engage, we hardly have 
a foe. He, [Turnus,] it is true, by fame shall be advanced to 
the gods, at whose altars he devotes himself, and in the mouths 
l_of men] shall ever live ; we who now are seated idle on the 
plain, shall, after having lost our country, be constrained to 
submit to haughty lords. 

By these words the resolution of the youths was now more 
and more inflamed, and through the troops the murmur glides. 
Even the Laurentines are changed, and those very Latins, 
who were recently promising themselves repose from war, 
and prosperity to the state, now are to arms inclined, wish the 
league unmade, and pity the hard fate of Turnus. To these 
incentives Juturna adds another yet stronger, and gives a 
sign from high heaven, than which none more effectually dis- . 
turbed the minds of the Italians, and misled them by its por- 
tent. For in the ruddy sky the tawny bird of Jove with 
winged speed pursued some water-fowl, and a noisy tribe of 
the feathered kind ; when suddenly swooping down to the 
waves, cruelly rapacious, he snatched up in his crooked 
pounces a goodly swan. The Italians roused their attention : 
and all the fowls with screaming noise turn their flight, 
amazing to see ! and darken the sky with their wings, and 
forming a cloud, pursue 17 their foe through the air; till, by 
the force [of their attacks], and the very encumbrance of his 
burthen, overpowered, the bird gave way, and from his talons 
dropped his prey into the river, and flew far into the clouds. 
Then indeed with acclamation the Rutulians salute the omen, 
and make ready their troops : and first Tolumnius the augur 
says,. This is what with prayers I often sought : I welcome 

i 

16 i. e. "who are equal in valour to Turnus." Anthon. B. 

lt Literally, " press on." Silius v. 281, " eeu tigride cerva Hyrcana 
cum pressa tremit. x. 125, " Haud secus ac Libyca fetam tenure leae- 
nam Venator premit obsesso cum Maurus in antro." B. 



p. xir. 260—294. ^ENEID. 385 

[the omen], and own [the interposition of] the gods ; myself, 
myself at your head, snatch up the steel, O Rutulians, whom 
this injurious foreigner like weak fowls with war dismays, and 
by violence ravages your coasts. He shall betake himself to 
flight, and set sail far into the deep. Do ye with one accord 
close your squadrons, and from the combat save your king, 
whom they would ravish from you. 18 

He said, and rushing forth, hurled a dart full in the face of 
the enemy : the whizzing cornel-shaft gives a twang, and with 
unerring aim cuts the air. At once it is done, at once a loud 
shout arises, and the whole ranks are disturbed, and their 
hearts inflamed with tumultuous rage. The flying javelin, as 
against it stood nine brothers, (most comely personages, whom 
one faithful consort of Tuscan blood had borne to Arcadian 
Gilippus,) one of these, a youth distinguished by his mien and 
shining arms, just in the middle, where the stitched belt is 
worn by the waist, and a clasp confines the joints of the sides : 
it penetrates the ribs, and stretches him on the yellow sand. 
But the brothers, a resolute band, and stung with grief, some 
draw their swords, some snatch the missile steel, and rush 
blindfold ; against whom the troops of Laurentum spring 
forth : then in close array Trojans, and Tuscans, and Arca- 
dians with painted arms, again stream forth. One common 
ardour so strongly possesses all to decide the strife by dint of 
sword. They rifled the very altars ; a thick tempest of darts 
flies through all the air, and an iron shower pours down 
amain ; and they bear away the hearths and goblets. 19 Latinus 
himself, the league now broken, flies, bearing off his baffled 
gods. Some rein their chariots, or with a bound vault on their 
steeds, and with drawn swords are ready. Messapus, eager to 
violate the truce, gives a terrible shock to the Tuscan Aules- 
tes, a king, and bearing the ensigns of a king, by jostling 
against him with his horse : he retreating falls, and unhappily 
among the altars planted behind him tumbles on his head and 
shoulders. But Messapus fierce flies up with his lance, and 
with the beamy weapon from on high, raising himself on his 
steed, smites him heavily, earnestly imploring [his life], and 

18 " Raptum " is used proleptically. B. 

19 The priests and ministers bear away the utensils which had beeu 
employed in pledging the truce. B. 

'2 c 



386 ^NEID. b. xii. 295—330, 

thus speaks : He has got it, 20 this victim is given to the great 
gods as a more grateful offering. The Italians flock toward 
him, and strip his limbs, yet warm. From the altar Cho- 
rinaeus snatches a burning brand, and confronting Ebusus, as 
he is coming up and aiming a blow, prevents him, by dashing 
the flames full in his face. His bushy beard blazed, and singed 
all over, diffused a smell. The other, pursuing the blow, with 
his left hand grasps the hair of his confounded foe, and with 
exerted force, pressing his knee against him, nails him fast to 
the ground ; in this posture he plunges the cruel sword into 
his side. Podalirius with naked sword pursuing the shepherd 
Alsus, as in the front of the battle he rushes through the darts, 
presses close upon him : he (Alsus) drawing back his axe, 
cleaves asunder in the middle the forehead and chin of his op- 
ponent, and with the bespattered blood besmears his arms. 
Cruel slumbers and the iron sleep [of death] press down his 
eyes ; closed are their orbs in everlasting night. 

But pious JEneas, with his head uncovered, stretched forth 
his unarmed hand [in sign of truce], and with loud acclama- 
tion called to his men : Whither rush you ? what sudden dis- 
cord has thus arisen ? O restrain your rage ! the league is 
now struck up, and all the articles are settled : I alone have 
a right to engage ; permit me, and banish your fears : this hand 
of mine shall make the league firm : those sacred rites give me 
security for Turnus. Amidst these words, amidst such ex- 
postulations, lo ! a hissing arrow with winged speed alighted 
on the hero : by whose hand shot, by whose whirling force 
impelled, who acquired such glory to the Rutulians, whether a 
god or chance, is uncertain : smothered was the fame of the 
illustrious action ; nor did any one vaunt himself on [having 
inflicted] a wound on .ZEneas. 

Soon as Turnus saw ^Eneas retiring from the army, and 
the leaders all in disorder, with sudden hope impetuous lie 
burns : for his steeds and arms at once he calls, and proudly 
springs into the chariot with a bound, and with his own 
hands guides the reins. Flying along, he gives to death many 
gallant frames of men ; many half dead he rolls along, or with 
his chariot tramples down the troops, or plies their flying 

*• i. e. " he has received his coup de grace" a gladiatorial phrase. Of 
Ter. Andr. i. 8, 56. B. 









b. xii. 331-365. ^ENEID 387 

backs with darts caught up. 21 As when by the streams of the 
cold Hebrus bloody Mars with fierce commotion clashes with 
his shield, and kindling war, lets loose his furious steeds ; they 
over the plain outfly the south winds and zephyr ; Thrace to 
its utmost bounds groans beneath the trampling of their feet, 
and the features of grim Terror, Rage, and Stratagem, the re- 
tinue of the god, stalk around : with like fury Turnus through 
the midst of the embattled plain exulting drives his steeds 
steaming with sweat, prancing over his miserably slaughtered 
foes : their rapid hoofs scatter the dewy drops of blood, and gore 
with mingled sand is spurned up. And now to death he gave 
Sthenelus, andThamyris, and Pholus, encountering the two last 
hand to hand, the other at a distance ; at a distance also both 
the sons of Imbrasus, Glaucus and Lades, whom m Lycia Im- 
brasus had bred, and furnished with equal skill in arms, either 
to fight hand to hand, or on horseback to outfly the wind. In 
another quarter Eumedes rushes into the midst of the field, 
the warlike son of the ancient Dolon,, 22 representing his grand- 
sire in name, in soul and action his sire ; who once, sent as a 
, spy to visit the Grecian camp, durst claim for his reward the 
chariot of Achilles. Him Tydides for so audacious an attempt 
honoured with a very different reward; and no more he 
aspires [now] to the steeds of Achilles. Him as soon as Tur- 
nus at a distance espied on the open plain, having first sent 
after him a fleet arrow through the extended void, he stops 
his harnessed steeds, down from the chariot springs, and flies 
up to him expiring and prostrate ; and, pressing his foot on 
his neck, wrests the sword from his hand, and deep in his 
throat plunged the shining blade, and withal added these 
words: Lo ! Trojan, stretched at your length measure the 
lands, and that Hesperia which by war you sought : these 
rewards they reap who dare attack me with the sword ; thus 
they build their walls. Hurling his lance he sends Butes to 
bear him company: and Chloreas, and Sybaris, Dares, and 
Thersilochus, and Thymoetes, who had fallen from the neck 
of his plunging 23 steed. And as, when the blast of Thracian 

21 Snatched up from his own chariot, or from the bodies of the slain. B. 

22 Dolon, a Trojan remarkable for his swiftness, having been sent as a 
spy to the Grecian camp, he was seized and put to death by Diomedes. 

23 So Silius uses "sternax," i. 261, " correpti sternacem ad proelia 
fraenis Frangere equum." Servius interprets it, " qui facile sternit se- 
dcntem." B. 

2 c 2 



388 JENEID. b. xn. 366—397. 

Boreas roars on the iEgean Sea, and to the shore pursues the 
waves, wherever the winds exert their incumbent force, the 
clouds fly through the air: just so before Turnus, wherever 
he cuts his way, the troops give way, and the routed squadrons 
fly : his impetuous ardour bears him on, and the wind, blowing 
right against his chariot, shakes his fluttering crest. Him thus 
bearing all before him, and bellowing with mad rage, Phegeus 
could not endure ; he opposed himself to the chariot, and, with 
his right hand, twisted the mouths of the steeds as they are 
hurried along, foaming with the bit. While he is dragged 
along, and hangs upon the pole, [Turnus'] broad lance reaches 
him undefended, and piercing bursts his double-tissued coat 
of mail, and with a wound grazes the surface of his body. 
But he, with shield opposed turning on the foe, advanced, 
and from his unsheathed sword 24 sought assistance ; when 
the wheel, and the axle accelerated in its career, hurled him 
headlong, and stretched him on the ground ; and Turnus fol- 
lowing, with his sword struck off his head, between the lower 
extremity of the helmet and the upper border of the corslet, 
and left him on the sand a [headless] trunk. 

Now while in the field victorious Turnus makes such havoc, 
in the interim Mnestheus, and trusty Achates, and Ascanius, 
accompanying, placed in the camp JEneas bleeding [from his 
wound, and] on a long spear propping his alternate steps. 25 
He storms, and, having broken off the shaft, struggles to 
wrench out the dart, and demands the speediest means of aid ; 
bids them make an incision with the broad sword, and quite 
lay open the weapon's recess, and send him back to the war. 
And now came to his aid Iapyx, 26 the son of Iasius, by Phoe- 
bus above others beloved ; upon whom Apollo himself, capti- 
vated with a violent passion for him, heretofore had offered 
to bestow his arts, his own gifts, his skill in augury, the lyre 
and winged shafts. He, to prolong his dying father's fate, 
chose to understand the powers of herbs and use of medicine, 
and inglorious to practise those silent arts. 27 Raving vio- 

24 I may as well remark, that "mucro" generally means a short, 
broad weapon. B. 
-" So Silhis vi. 68, " Saucius — fractae innitens hastae." B. 

26 Iapyx, a Trojan, the son of Iasius, and a favourite of Apollo, who 
instructed him in medicine. 

21 Because unheralded by fame. Anthon. B. 



B. xii. 393—435. -ENEID. 38Q 

lently ^Eneas stood, leaning on his massy spear, unmoved, 
amidst the vast confluence, either by the tears of the youths 
or of grieving lulus. The sage, in his robe doubled back, 
girt up 28 after the physician's fashion, with anxious trepida- 
tion makes many efforts in vain with his healing hand, and 
the potent herbs of Phoebus ; in vain with his right hand tugs 
the dart, and with tenacious pincers grips the steel. No 
success attends the means ; his patron Apollo lends no aid ; 
and the fierce terror of the field spreads more and more, and 
the mischief is nearer. Now they see the air stand thick with 
dust : [Turnus'] cavalry are advancing, and thick showers of 
darts fall in the midst of the camp : to heaven ascend the dis- 
mal shouts of youth, some fighting, and some falling under 
cruel Mars. 

Here the parent-goddess Venus, deeply affected with the 
undeserved suffering of her son, from Cretan Ida crops a 
stalk of dittany, all blooming with downy leaves and purple 
flowers : to the wild goats those herbs are not unknown ; [for 
from them they seek relief,] when in their backs the winged 
shafts have stuck. This Venus, her face muffled in a dim 
cloud, conveyed ; with this she tinctures the water poured in 
the shining vase, secretly medicating it; and injects the juice 
of healing ambrosia, and fragrant panacea. With this liquor 
aged Iapyx, not knowing [its communicated virtue], fomented 
the wound ; and suddenly (for all the pain fled from his body, 
and all the blood in the deep wound was stanched ; and now 
the arrow, following the hand, without any compulsion drop- 
ped out, and to his pristine state his vigour returned anew) 
Iapyx exclaims, Quick fly for the hero's arms ; why do you 
stand ? thus he first kindles their courage against the foe. [He 
adds,] Not from human aid, or from the masterly art [of man], 
proceeds this cure, nor, ^Eneas, is it my right hand that saves 
thee : a god more powerful is the agent, and releases thee for 
enterprises of greater moment. He, panting for the combat, 
had incased his legs in gold, is impatient of delay, and brand- 
ishes his lance. When his shield was fitted to his side, and 
the corslet to his back, within his armed folds he embraces 
Ascanius, and, through his helmet, gently touching his lips, 
thus addresses him : From me, my son, learn valour and true 

28 In order to be less encumbered in his operations. So Siiius v. 367, 
" intortos de more adstrictus amictus, Mulcebat lympha purgatum san- 
guine vulnus." B. 



390 ^ENEID. b. xii. 436—469 

fortitude ; thy fortune [learn] from others. Now shall my 
hand by war set thee in safety, and lead thee to the glorious 
fruits of victory. Be sure you this remember, when ere long 
your age shall reach maturity ; and, calling often to mind the 
examples of your ancestors, let your father -ZEneas, and uncle 
Hector, spur you on. 

Soon as he uttered these words, from the gates he issued 
forth majestic; in his hand brandishing a ponderous javelin: 
at the same time in a thick body rush forth Antheus and 
Mnestheus, and all the troops from the abandoned camp pour 
along. Then with mingled clouds of blinding dust the plain 
is overspread, and the earth, shaking by the trampling of their 
feet, trembles. Them marching Turnus saw from an oppo- 
site hill ; the Ausonians saw, and cold fear ran through their 
inmost bones. Before all the Latins Juturna first heard and 
recognised the sound, and in consternation fled. The hero 
(iEneas) speeds his way, and along the open plain drives his 
fiery squadron. As when under some stormy 29 constellation 
a tempest moves athwart the mid ocean towards the land; 
ah ! how the hearts of the desponding swains, presaging from 
afar, shudder ! it will bring ruin on the trees, and desolation 
on the fields of corn, it will lay all waste around : the winds 
before it fly, and waft hoarse murmurs to the shore : with such 
fury the Trojan chief leads on his squadron against the oppos- 
ing foes : in the thick array they crowd upon each other, 
closing their serried files. Thyrnbrseus with the sword smites 
down the stern Osiris, Mnestheus beats down Archetius, 
Achates kills Epulo, and Gyas Ufens. The augur's self To- 
lumnius falls, who first had hurled his lance against the ad- 
verse foes. To heaven a shout is raised ; and the Rutulians, 
routed in their turn, show their backs all dusty over the field. 
^Eneas himself neither deigns to put the fugitives to death, 
nor does he pursue those who engage in close fight, or who 
[at a distance] throw the javelin : Turnus alone, with accur- 
ate survey, he searches out, amidst the thick clouds of dust : 
him alone he demands to the combat. 

With dread of this the warlike maid Juturna, struck to the 
heart, overthrows Metiscus, 30 Turnus' charioteer, between the 

29 Literally, " when [the influence of] some constellation has burst 
forth." B. " 

*° Metiscus, the charioteer of Turnus, whose form was assumed by 
Juturna, the sister of Turnus. 



b. xii. 470—506. JENEID. 391 

harness, and leaves him far behind fallen from the beam. 
Herself succeeds, and with her hand guides the waving reins, 
assuming all, the voice, the person, and arms of Metiscus. As 
when throughout the spacious mansions of some wealthy lord 
the sable swallow flutters, and on the wing traverses the lofty 
courts, picking up her scanty fare, and food for her loquacious 
young ; and now in the empty cloisters, now about the liquid 
pools chatters : in like manner through the midst of the foes 
Juturna rides, and flying in her rapid chariot, circuits all : 
and now here, now there, exhibits her brother in triumph ; 
nor suffers him to engage [in single combat] ; but far [from 
iEneas] devious flies. 

.iEneas, with no less eagerness, pursues mazy orbs, in order 
to intercept him, traces out the warrior, and with a loud voice 
calls after him through the broken troops. As often as he 
casts his eyes on the foe, and by his agility attempted the 
winged courser's speed ; so often Juturna wheeled about the 
chariot, turning it from him. Alas, what can he do ? in vain 
he fluctuates with a varying tide, and different cares urge his 
mind to opposite schemes. At him Messapus, as in his swift 
career he chanced in the left hand to wield two javelins pointed 
with steel, levels one of them, hurling it with a well-aimed 
blow. JEneas stopped short, and shrunk himself up behind 
his buckler, stooping on his knee; yet the impetuous dart 
bore away the tufted top of the helmet, and from his head 
struck off the towering crest. Then indeed his rage swells ; 
and, driven on by the deceitful arts [of his foe], when he per- 
ceived that the steeds and chariot were driven back in a dif- 
ferent career, he makes large protestations to Jove, and the 
altars of the broken league. At length he rushes into the 
midst of the lines, and under the auspicious influence of 
Mars, arrayed in terrors, ushers in a hideous undistinguished 
slaughter, and gives loose reins to all his fury. 

What god in song can now to me unfold so many disastrous 
scenes, what god [can tell] the various havoc and death of 
the chiefs, whom by turns now Turnus chases over all the 
plain, and now the Trojan hero? Was it thy pleasure, Jove, 
that nations, which were [one day] to be joined in everlasting 
peace, should with such commotion engage ? ^Eneas, not losing 
time, full in the side smote Sucro the Rutulian, (this combat 
first checked the Trojans in their career,) and, where death is 



392 ^ENEID. b. xn. 507—547 

speediest, through the ribs and wattled fences of his breast 
drives home the cruel blade. Turnus on foot encountering 
Amycus from his horse overthrown, and his brother Diores, 
smites the one with his long spear as he comes up, the other 
with his sword ; and, having cut off the heads of both, sus- 
pends them on his chariot, and bears them along bedewed with 
blood. The other despatches Talos, Tanai's, and stout Cethe- 
gus, all three at one assault, and dejected Onytes, of Theban 
extraction, the son of Perida. Turnus [again overthrows] 
the brothers sent from Lycia and Apollo's lands, and Menoetes, 
an Arcadian youth, in vain to war averse ; whose art and poor 
abode had been about the streams of Lerna, abounding in 
fishes ; nor were the employments of the great known to him, 
while in farmed land his father sowed. And as two fires rage, 
let loose from different quarters upon a withered copse, and 
crackling laurel groves ; or as with impetuous fall from the 
steep mountains two foaming rivers roar along and roll to the 
sea, each laying his passage waste : with no less impetuosity 
-ZEneas and Turnus both rush through the embattled plain ; 
now, now their rage boils up within ; their invincible breasts 
are ready to burst with fury ; now with full career they drive 
into the midst of wounds. The one (JEneas) with a rock and 
the whirling force of a huge stone, overthrows headlong, and 
at his length stretches on the ground, Murranus, vaunting loud 
his ancestry, and the ancient names of his forefathers, and his 
whole line through the Latin kings derived : him beneath the 
harness and yoke the wheels dragged along, and with rap on 
rap the hurrying hoofs of his steeds, regardless of their mas- 
ter, trample upon him. The other (Turnus) encounters Hus 
rushing on, and storming hideous with ire, and against his 
gilded temples hurls a javelin ; through his helmet transfixing 
his brain, the spear stood still. Nor could thy right hand, O 
Creteus, bravest of Greeks, save thee from Turnus ; nor did 
his own gods protect Cupencus from the assault of ^Eneas. 
The sword found easy access to his heart : nor did the resist- 
ance of the brazen shield aught avail its hapless owner. Lau- 
rentum's fields, O iEolus, saw thee too fall, and [stretched] on 
thy back widely cover the earth. Thou, whom neither the 
Grecian squadrons could prostrate, nor Achilles, who over- 
threw Priam's empire, meetest thy doom. Here were the 
boundaries of thy life : under Mount Ida thy stately palace, 



b. xii. 547-582 JE8ETD. 393 

in Lyrnessus thy stately palace ; [here] a grave in Laurentine 
ground. Thus now both hosts are [on each other] turned, 
both Latins and Trojans all: Mnestheus, and stern Serestus, 
and Messapus, a horseman renowned, and gallant Asylas, the 
Tuscan phalanx, and Arcadian Evander's cavalry, the war- 
riors each to his power their utmost efforts exert. 31 No stop, 
no stay ; with vast emulation they strain their utmost. 

Here his lovely parent inspired iEneas with the resolution 
to march to the walls, and forthwith advance his army against 
the city, and with an unexpected blow confound the Latins. 
While through the various ranks in quest of Turnus he rolled 
his eyes hither and thither around, he sees the city exempt 
from the disastrous war, and in safety undisturbed. Instantly 
the image of a more decisive battle inflames his soul : he calls 
the chiefs, Mnestheus, Sergestus, and brave Serestus, and 
takes a rising ground, where the rest of the Trojan army 
assemble in thick array, 32 nor lay their targets or darts aside. 
He in the centre, posted on the eminence, addresses them : 
Let no obstruction be given to my proposal : Jove stands by 
us : nor, because the design is sudden, let any one be the more 
backward. The city, the cause of the war, the empire itself of 
Latinus, unless the people consent to receive our yoke, and 
vanquished to submit, this day will I overturn, and lay their 
smoking towers level with the ground. Am I forsooth 
to wait till Turnus deign to accept our offered challenge, and 
[so often] beaten, be again disposed to take the field ? This is 
the source, my friends, this the great hinge of the execrable 
war. Quickly bring brands, and with fire re-assert the league. 
He said ; and all at once with emulous ardour form the wedged 
battalion, and to the walls in a dense body move. Suddenly 
the scaling ladders, and unexpected flames appear. Some fly 
to the gates, and butcher the first they meet ; others hurl the 
steel, and darken the sky with darts. -ZEneas himself among 
the foremost beneath the walls extends his hand, and with a 
loud voice accuses Latinus ; the gods he calls to witness, that 
he is a second time compelled to the fight ; that the Italians 
are now twice become his foes, and this the second league they 

31 This seems like an imitation of Plautus, Amphit. i. 1, 76, " Pro se 
quisque, id quod quisque potest et valet." Cf. Ter. Heut. i. 1, 74. Ovid 
Met. iii. 642. B. 

32 " Densi " refers to " milites," which is implied in " legio." B. 



394 ^ENEID. b. xii. 583—620 

broke. Among the trembling citizens dissension arises ; some 
press to dismantle the town, and open the gates to the Trojans, 
and drag the king himself to the ramparts. Others take up 
arms, and march on to defend the walls. As when a shepherd 
hath traced out a swarm of bees enclosed in some harbouring 
cleft, and filled [their cells] with bitter smoke ; they within, 
alarmed for their affairs, in trepidation run hither and thither 
through the waxen camp, and with loud buzzing whet their 
rage : through their cells the black stench is rolled ; then with 
faint murmur the caverns within resound ; to the empty 
regions of air the smoke ascends. 

This disaster too befell the distressed Latins, which with woe 
shook the whole city to the foundation. The queen, soon as she 
saw the enemy advancing to the town, the walls assaulted, the 
flames flying up to the roofs ; no where the Rutulian bands, 
no troops of Turnus ; had the misfortune to believe the youth 
slain in the heat of battle, and, with sudden grief distracted, 
cries, that she had been the cause, the criminal author, and 
source of ills ; and frantic in her raving anguish, pouring 
forth many exclamations, with her hands in despair asunder 
tears her purple robes, and from a lofty beam ties the noose 
of her unseemly 33 death. Which disaster when it reached the 
unhappy Latin dames, first her daughter Lavinia tore her 
golden tresses and rosy cheeks with her hands ; then all the 
rest run raving about. With shrieks the palace far and wide 
resounds. Hence the doleful intelligence is blazed through 
the town. Their souls despond. Latinus, thunderstruck with 
the destiny of his queen, and the ruin of his city, goes about 
tearing his robe, deforming his hoary locks, sprinkled over 
with sordid ashes ; and much himself accuses, for not having 
before received Trojan JEneas, and cordially admitted him as 
his son-in-law. 

Meanwhile the warrior Turnus in the extremity of the field 
pursues a few straggling troops, now more languid, and less 
elated with the speed of his horses. The wind wafted to him 
this outcry mingled with unseen terrors ; the din and unjoy- 
ous murmurs of the distracted city struck his listening ears. 
Ah me ! why with such woe are our walls disturbed ? What 

33 Either referring to the supposed treatment of those who had com- 
mitted suicide, in the other world, or to the disgracefulness of a death by 
hanging. See Servius. B. 



p.. xii. 621—659. ^KNEID. 395 

alarming shouts burst from the various quarters of the town? 
He said, and, pulling in the reins, stood still, in amazement 
lost. Then his sister, now that she was transformed into the 
figure of the charioteer Metiscus, and guided the chariot, the 
horses, and the reins, in these words replies : This way, Tur- 
nus, let us pursue the sons of Troy, where our first conquest 
opens the way. Others there are who by their prowess can 
defend the walls : iEneas assails the Italians, and [with them'j 
joins battle. Let us too, by exerting our activity, dispense 
death to the Trojans without pity ; nor shall you quit the field 
inferior to him in the number [of the slain], or in the honour 
of the fight. To this Turnus [replied] : O sister ; I knew 
you long ago, when first by artifice you broke the truce, and 
engaged yourself in these wars ; and now, though a goddess, 
in vain you wear disguise. But what god commissioned you 
to quit the skies in order to sustain such toils ? [are you 
come] to be witness of your unhappy brother's cruel death ? 
For what can I do ? or what success now can fortune pro- 
mise? Myself before my eyes saw Murranus, than whom 
there survives not one to me more dear ; [I saw him] fall as 
he called on me wuth his [expiring] breath, mighty the man, 
and with a mighty wound subdued. Ill-fated Ufens fell, that 
he might not be a spectator of my disgrace : The Trojans are 
in possession of his corpse and arms. Shall I suffer our city 
to be razed, the only thing that was wanting to our distress — 
nor by this right hand refute the calumnies of Drances ? 
Shall I turn my back? and shall this earth see Turnus fly? 
Is it then so grievous a misfortune to die ? Oh infernal powers, 
befriend me, since the will of the powers above is hostile ! To 
you I shall descend a spotless soul, from that imputation clear, 
and at no time degenerate from my great ancestors. 

Scarcely had he said, when lo ! Sages, hurried by his foam- 
ing steed, flies through the midst of the foes, wounded with 
an arrow athwart the face, and imploring Turnus by name he 
rushes forward : Turnus, on thee our last relief depends ; 
have pity on thy own. .ZEneas thunders in arms, and threat- 
ens to overthrow the stately towers of Latium, and raze them 
to the ground : and now to our roofs the fire-brands fly. On 
thee their eyes, on thee their whole regard the Latins turn : 
king Latinus himself demurs, whom to call his son-in-law, or 
to which alliance to incline. Besides, the queen, most faith- 



396 JENEID. b. xn. 659—695 

ful to jour interest, has fallen by her own hand, and, aban- 
doned to despair, has fled from life. Before the gates Messapus 
and brave Atinas alone sustain the fight. Around those on 
each side the battalions stand in thick array, and an iron crop 
of naked swords shoot a horrid glare : [yet, during these pub- 
lic alarms,] you are wheeling your chariot along the desert 
field. 

Confounded with the varied aspect of affairs, Turnus was 
stunned, and stood in silent gaze. Deep in his breast boils 
overwhelming shame, also frantic rage with intermingled 
grief, and love racked with fury, and conscious worth. Soon 
as the clouds were dispelled, and light to his mind restored, 
towards the walls he rolled his naming eye-balls in turbulence 
of soul, and from his car surveyed the spacious city. When 
lo ! a torrent of flames whirling amid the different stories, in 
rolling waves ascended to heaven, and had seized the tower ; 
the tower which himself of jointed beams had reared, and 
under it wheels applied, and with lofty bridges overlaid. 
Sister, [he cries,] now, now, destiny prevails ; forbear to stop 
me ; let us follow whither god and rigid fortune calls. I am 
resolved to enter the lists with iEneas ; whatever bitterness 
is in death, I am resolved to bear it : nor, sister, shall you see 
me longer in disgrace. Permit me first, I pray, to give vent 
to this fury. 

He said, and instantly from his chariot sprang with a bound 
upon the plain ; through foes, through darts he rushes, and 
leaves his mourning sister, and with rapid course bursts 
through the middle ranks. And as when a rock tumbles pre- 
cipitately down from a mountain's top, torn by the winds, 
whether furious rains have washed it away, or undermining 
time by length of years hath loosened it ; down the precipice 
abrupt the pertinacious mass of mountain with vast impulse 
is hurried, and bounds over the ground, sweeping away with 
it woods, flocks, and men: just so through the broken troops 
Turnus rushes to the walls of the city, where to a vast extent 
the earth is drenched in streaming blood, and the air hisses 
with javelins. With his hand he makes a sign, and at the 
same time thus with a loud voice begins : Now, Rutulians, 
forbear, and, ye Latins, withhold your darts ; whatever for- 
tune of the war remains is mine : it is more equitable that I 
alone expiate the ["violated"^ league in your stead, and by the 



B. xii. 695—730. 7ENEID. 397 

sword decide the strife. All the troops retired from between 
them, and made room. 

But father .ZEneas, having heard Turnus' name, forsakes 
the walls, and forsakes the lofty towers, and spurns at all de- 
lays : all his enterprises he breaks off, exulting with joy, and 
thunders dreadful in arms ; as mighty as Athos, as mighty as 
Eryx, or mighty as the parent [mountain] Apenninus 34 him- 
self, when with his waving oaks he roars, and rejoices in his 
snowy top, exalting himself to the skies. And now both 
Rutulians, and Trojans, and all the Italians, eagerly turned 
their eyes ; both those who on high guarded the battlements, 
and those who with the ram battered the walls below : their 
arms they laid down from their shoulders. Latinus himself 
with amazement views the mighty heroes, born in distant 
quarters of the globe, encountering each other, and deciding 
their quarrel with the sword. They, soon as the lists in the 
spacious plain were cleared, having with rapid onset flung 
their javelins from afar, rush to the combat with shields and 
arms of brass resounding. Earth gives a groan ; then stroke 
on stroke they redouble. Chance and courage are blended to- 
gether. And as in Sila's 35 spacious grove, or on lofty Tabur- 
nus, 36 when two bulls with butting fronts rush to the hostile 
combat, the shepherds in consternation have fled ; all the herd 
stand dumb with fear, the heifers faintly low, dubious which 
shall rule the herd, whom the whole drove are to obey : they 
with great force deal promiscuous wounds to each other, and 
struggling keenly infix their horns, and with profusion of 
blood lave their necks and shoulders : the whole grove re- 
bellows with their groans. Just so Trojan iEneas, and the 
Daunian hero, with shields against each other tilting, rush 
forward : loud clashing fills the skies. Great Jove sustains 
two equally-poised scales, and puts into them the different 
fates of both ; whom the toilsome combat destines to victory, 
and in which scale death sinks down. Here Turnus, presum- 
ing he might with safety, springs forth, and on his tiptoes 
rises with his whole body to his uplifted sword and aims a 
blow. The Trojans and trembling Latins shriek aloud, and 

• 

34 Apenninus, a ridge of high mountains, running through, the middle 
of Italy. 

5 Sila, a large wood in Lucania, abounding with pitch. 

K Taburnus, a mountain of Campania. B. 



398 .ENEID. b. xii. 731—765. 

both armies are fixed in suspense. But the treacherous sword 
breaks short, and in the middle of the stroke leaves the in- 
flamed chief [at the mercy of his foe], unless flight should 
succeed to his relief. Swifter than the east wind he flies, soon 
as he saw the unknown hilt, 37 and his right hand disarmed. 
There is a report that in his headlong haste, when he mounted 
his yoked steeds for the first onset, while he was in hurried 
trepidation, he snatched the sword of his charioteer Metiscus, 
leaving his father's [heavenly tempered] steel behind: and 
long that served his purpose, while the Trojans offered their 
flying backs ; but, when it came to Vulcan's arms divine, 38 
tne mortal blade, like brittle ice, in shivers flew with the 
stroke ; along the yellow sands its splinters shine. Therefore 
Turnus, in frantic flight, traverses the several quarters of the 
field, and now hither, then thither, wheels in uncertain mazes. 
For on every hand the Trojans in close circling bands en- 
closed him ; and on this side a vast morass, on that steep 
mountains environ him. Nor less eagerly .ZEneas, though, dis- 
abled by the shaft, his knees sometimes check and oppose his 
speed, pursues, and fervent presses close upon the heels of his 
trembling foe. As a hound, when he has found a stag en- 
closed by a river, or hedged around by the terror of the crim- 
son plumes, 39 pursues him with speed and full cry; he, mean- 
while, scared by the toils and steep bank, backward and 
forward flies a thousand ways : but the staunch Umbrian dog 
closes upon him, with open mouth, is just in act to gripe [his 
prey] and, as if now he griped him, chides with his jaws, and 
with, delusive bite is mocked : then shouts arise, the banks 
and lakes around re-echo, and the whole sky thunders with 
uproar. At once he (Turnus) flies, at once chides the Ru- 
tulians all, calling on each by name, and importunately 
craves his well-known sword. ^Eneas, on the other hand, de- 
nounces death and present destruction, if any one should ap- 
proach ; and overawes the trembling troops, threatening to 
raze the city, and, wounded as he was, presses on. Five rounds 
they finish in their career, and trace back as many more, this 
way and that. For no slight or frivolous prize is sought; hut 
for the life and blood of Twrnus they strive. 

37 He struck with the sword of Metiscus, not his own. B. 

38 i. e. those of ^Eneas. B. 

19 On the " formido," see my note on iEn. iv. 120. B. 






F. xii. 766—801. .ENEID. 399 

Sacred to Faunus 40 here chanced to stand a wild olive witli 
its bitter leaves, a tree long revered by seamen ; where saved 
from the waves they used to fix their offerings to the Lauren- 
tine god, and suspend their garments vowed. But the Tro- 
jans without distinction had cut down the sacred stock, that 
they might combat in a clear field. Here stood the spear of 
^Eneas : here fixed the hurling force [of his right hand] had 
conveyed it, and riveted it in the tough root. The Trojan 
stooped, and attempted with his hand to wrench out the steel, 
that with the missile weapon he might pursue him, whom by 
speed he could not overtake. Then Turnus, with fear dis- 
tracted, cries : O Faunus, pity, I pray ; and thou, propitious 
Earth, detain the weapon, if I have always held your honours 
sacred, which, on the contrary, the sons of Troy have by war 
profaned. He said, and invoked the aid of the god by vows 
not vain. For JEneas, long struggling, after loss of time in 
essaying the tenacious root, was unable, by his utmost efforts, 
to disengage the firm hold of the wood. While he keenly 
strains and presses, the Daunian goddess, again transformed 
into the shape of the charioteer Metiscus, runs forward, and 
restores to her brother the sword. Venus, indignant that 
such licence should be given to the audacious nymph, ap- 
proached, and from the deep root tore up the spear. The 
towering chiefs, in arms and courage renewed, the one relying 
on his trusty sword, the other stern and majestic with his 
spear, stand opposed, breathless in the martial combat. 

Meanwhile the sovereign of all-powerful Olympus addresses 
Juno, as from a yellow cloud she viewed the fight : Consort, 
when shall this strife be at an end ? what further remains ? 
You yourself know, and own you are not ignorant, that 
^Eneas is destined to be a denizen of the sky, and by the 
Fates is to be advanced to the stars. What then do you pro- 
pose, or with what view are you hovering in the chill clouds ? 
Was it seemly for a god [elect] to be violated by a wound 
from a mortal ? or that Turnus (for without you what power 
had Juturna ?) should have his wrested sword restored, and to 
the vanquished new strength accrue ? Now at length desist, 
and be swayed by my entreaty : nor let such discontent prey 
upon you in silence ; nor let gloomy cares so often meet me 

40 Faunus, the son of Picus. who is said to have reigned in Italy about 
500 b. c. 



400 22NEID. b. xn. 802-836. 

from those sweet lips. Xow affairs are come to a crisis : you 
have been empowered to harass the Trojans by sea and land, 
to kindle a nameless war, entail dishonour on the house [of 
Latinus], and blend sorrows with these nuptials [of JEneas 
and his daughter] ; further to attempt I forbid you. Thus 
Jupiter spoke : thus on the other hand the Saturnian goddess 
with downcast look [rejoined] : I own, great Jove, it was 
because I knew this to be your will, that I, against my inclin- 
ation, from Turnus and the earth withdrew. Nor had you 
seen me else now sitting alone in this airy recess, enduring 
things worthy, unworthy; 41 but, girt with flames, I had been 
planted in the very field of battle, drawing the Trojans on to 
adverse fight. I confess that I advised Juturna to relieve her 
unhappy brother, and I approved that for his life she should 
make higher attempts ; yet not that she should [throw] a dart 
or bend a bow ; I swear by the inexorable source of the Sty- 
gian lake, which is set forth the sole object of religious dread 
to the gods above. And now for my part I yield, and loath- 
ing renounce combats. This, which by no law of fate is with- 
holden, I implore of thee in behalf of Latium, and for the 
honour of [its princes], thy own blood ; that when by this 
auspicious match (so be it) they shall establish peace, when 
they shall unite in laws and leagues, you will not command 
the natives of Latium to change their ancient name, or become 
Trojans, and be called Teucri, or to change 42 their language 
or alter their dress. Let Latium subsist; let the kings of 
Alba subsist through ages ; let the sons of Rome rise to 
imperial power by means of the Italian valour : Troy hath 
perished, and suffer it to perish with its name for ever. To 
her the founder of men and things thus smiling [spoke] : 
Sister of Jove, and Saturn's other offspring, do you still roll 
in your breast such tides of passion ? But come and quell the 
fury indulged in vain. I grant what you desire ; [by your 
prayers] I am subdued, and willingly myself resign. Their 
native language and customs the Ausonians shall retain ; and, 
as it now is, the name shall be : only incorporated with them 
the Trojans shall settle [in Latium] ; the institutions and 

41 A proverbial phrase, equivalent to "suffering everything.*' So 
u requa, iniqua ;" " fanda, infanda." B. 

42 I think "viros" is somewhat emphatic, thus: "nor compel such 
men, as they are, to wear the effeminate Trojan costume." B. 



b. xii 837-875. JENEID.. 40! 

ceremonials of religion I will add, and make them all Latins 
of one speech. Hence a race mingled with Ausonian blood 
shall rise, which by its piety you shall see exalted above men, 
above gods ; nor shall any nation with equal zeal celebrate 
your honour. To these words Juno assents, and, filled with 
complacency, gave her mind a contrary bias. Meanwhile she 
quitted the sky, and from the cloud withdrew. 

This done, the Sire revolves another purpose with himself, 
and meditates to dismiss Juturna from [aiding] her brother's 
arms. Two pests there are, the dire sisters called ; whom, 
with hellish Megaera, 43 joyless Night at one and the same 
birth brought forth, and bound with equal spires of serpents, 
and added to them wings swift as the wind. These at the 
throne of Jove, and at the court of the incensed sovereign 
present themselves, and sharpen terror in the minds of feeble 
mortals, what time the king of gods prepares baleful death and 
diseases, or terrifies guilty cities with war. Of these Jove 
sends down one in haste from the lofty aether, and bids her 
stand before Juturna as a fatal sign. She flies and in a rapid 
whirlwind to earth is borne : just as through a cloudy sky an 
arrow shot from the string, which tinged with the bitterness 
of malignant poison a Parthian (a Parthian or Cydonian) hath 
hurled an incurable dart, flies hissing and unseen athwart the 
fleeting shades ; in like manner the offspring of Night shot 
away and hied to the earth. Soon as she perceives the Tro- 
jan battalions and the troops of Turnus, she suddenly shrinks 
up into the form of the little fowl, which at times sitting by 
night on tombs or desolate towers, late inauspicious hoots 
amidst the shades : into this shape transformed, the fiend in 
sight of Turnus flies backward and forward screaming, and 
flaps on his buckler with her wings. Unusual numbness relaxed 
his limbs with fear, his hair with horror stood on end, and his 
speech clove to his jaws. But, when his sister Juturna at a 
distance knew the shrill noise and the Fury s wings, in deep 
distress she tears her dishevelled tresses, mangling her face 
with her nails, and her breasts with blows : Turnus ! what 
can thy sister now avail thee ? wretch that I am, what expe- 
dient have I now left ? by what art can I prolong thy life ? so 
rueful a portent can I withstand ? Now, now I quit the field. 

43 Megaera, one of the Furies, daughter of Nox and Acheron* 

2 i> 



402 ^ENEID. b. xii. 875-910. 

Add not terror to my fear, ye inauspicious fowls : the beating 
of your wings, your deadly screams I know ; nor am I a stran- 
ger to the stern mandates of imperious Jove. Are these the 
returns he makes for my virginity ? Why gave he me immor- 
tal life ? why was I exempt from the law of mortality ? surely 
now I might have put an end to such oppressive woes, and 
accompanied my wretched brother through the shades below. 
I immortal ! or can I, brother, relish aught of my enjoyments 
without thee ? Ob, what earth to me will yawn full deep, and 
despatch a goddess to the shades below ? This said, the god- 
dess muffled up her head in a sea-green veil, drawing many a 
groan, and plunged herself into the deep river. 

On the other hand, .ZEneas urges the attack, majestic waves 
his massy spear, and thus with wrathful soul bespeaks [his 
foe] : What means this delay now after all ? or why, O 
Turnus, do you now decline the combat ? It is not in running 
that we must try our skill, but in close fight with cruel arms. 
Turn thee into all shapes, collect whatever assistance you can, 
whether from valour or from artifice : wish to reach on wings 
the lofty stars, or shut up within the hollow earth to lie con- 
cealed. He, shaking his head, [replies] : Not thy boisterous 
words, insulting foe, cause my fears : the gods, and adverse 
Jove, intimidate me. Nor more he said, but casts his eye on 
a huge stone, a stone antique, of huge dimensions, which in 
the field by chance was lying, set for a land-mark, to dis- 
tinguish the controverted bounds of the fields. 44 Scarcely 
would twelve chosen men support it on their shoulders, such 
frames of men as earth now produces. The hero snatched it 
up with hurrying hand ; raising himself aloft, and rushing on 
with speed, he hurled it against his foe. But he knows not 
himself, either while running or going, nor when he lifts up 
with his hand, or wields the enormous stone. 45 His knees 
sink under him: his chill blood with shuddering terror 
is congealed. Then the stone itself, rolled through the 
empty air, neither reached the hero's whole length, nor 
bore home the intended blow. And as in dreams by night, 
when languid sleep hath closed our eyes, we seem in vain to 
make effort to prolong a race on which we are intent, and in 
midst of our efforts sink down faint; nor power is in the 

44 Literally, "to determine some dispute respecting the fields.'* B. 
4i i. e. he feels the loss of his wonted strength. B. 



b. xii. 911—947. ^ENEID 403 

tongue, nor in the body competency of wonted strength, 
nor voice nor words obey [the dictates of our will] ; just so 
from Turnus the cursed fiend withholds success, by whatever 
efforts of valour he sought the way. Then various thoughts 
are rolling in his breast. Now he turns his eyes on the Rutu- 
lians, now on the city [of Laurentum], now stands hover- 
ing in dread, and trembles for the approach of the dart. Nor 
[perceives he] whither he can fly, nor how he may make 
head against his foe, nor sees he any where the chariot or his 
sister charioteer. In this perplexity .ZEneas brandishes against 
him the dart of fate, having with his eye marked out the des- 
tined wound, and with the whole force of his body hurls it 
from afar. Never did stones shot from a battering engine 
roar so loud, nor from the thunder burst such mighty peals. 
Like a black whirlwind flies the javelin winged with dire de- 
struction ; it opens a passage through his corslet's border, and 
the utmost orb of his seven-fold shield ; then hissing passes 
through his mid thigh. Down to earth the mighty Turnus 
wounded sinks on his doubled knee. 

Up rise the Rutulians together with a groan, and the whole 
mountain around rebellows, and the deep groves far and near 
return the sound. He, humble and suppliant, stretching his 
eyes and imploring hand, says, I L.r r e indeed deserved, nor 
do I deprecate : improve thy fortune. If any regard to a 
wretched father can move thee, (thou too hadst such a sire, 
Anchises,) have compassion, I pray thee, on the age of Daunus ; 
and me, or, if you rather choose, this body, despoiled of life, 
unto my friends restore. You have overcome, and the Auso- 
nians have seen thy vanquished foe stretch forth his [suppliant] 
hands : Lavinia is thy bride. Persist not further in thy hate. 
iEneas, fierce as he was from the heat of action, stood rolling 
his eyes, and repressed his hand : and still more and more the 
speech had begun to move his wavering mind, when on the 
high shoulder [of his foe] the inauspicious belt appeared, and 
with its well-known bosses, the girdle of youthful Pallas shone, 
whom vanquished, Turnus with a wound had slain, and on 
his shoulders wore the hostile badge. Soon as the hero espied 
the memorials of his cruel grief and the spoils [of his friend], 
inflamed with fury and terribly enraged, [he exclaimed, And] 
shalt thou from me hence escape clad in the spoils of my 



404 .ENEID. b. xii. 948—952. 

friends? Thee Pallas, Pallas, with this wound a victim de- 
votes, and takes vengeance on thy accursed blood. With 
these words deep in his opposed bosom he furious plunged the 
sword. But with the chill of death are his limbs relaxed, and 
with a groan the indignant soul hurries down to the shades. 



THE END. 



LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
AND CHARING CROSS. 



if 



